Your Online Marketplace for Classified Jet Parts

jonerik writes: "Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Air Force is less than pleased about the recent posting of a number of sensitive jet communications components on eBay, including parts for the SR-71 spy plane, the F-16 fighter, the KC-10 tanker, and the giant C-5 transport. According to the article, the parts had sat in a warehouse for 12 years after being lost in shipping when the dealer, Norb Novocin, bought the lot for $244 in an unclaimed property sale. Novocin ended up selling four of the items to bidders in a recent auction, including an X-Band Weather Radar Modulator for $500 and a high-frequency radio circuit card for $32. The Air Force is looking into the incident and Novocin is cooperating."

Comments

this is good

[JeanBaptiste]

my x-band weather radar modulator just broke so I need a new one

Re:this is good

[macdaddy357]

I bought a stealth fighter on Ebay. When I opened the box, I didn't see anything. Guess it works real good, huh?

Re:this is good

[Walt Dismal]

*X-band*? Oh darn. I thought they said X-FILES. That's the last time I do an EBay bid before reading the description carefully.

Re:this is good

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you misread the auction. It said "1 stealth fighter box". I've had a couple frinds get fooled by that one too. On the bright side, they were really nice boxes.

What, No F-4 Parts?

[echucker]

Guess I'll have to fly it by the seat of my pants instead. :-(

Terrorists.

[Penguinoflight]

These guys must be terrorists, Why else would they want this cool stuff?? I'm just a little tired of the news always talking about terrorists, thankful it wasn't mentioned (yet) in this story.

Re:Terrorists.

[telstar]

I'm just a little tired of the news always talking about terrorists, thankful it wasn't mentioned (yet) in this story.

• No ... we left that up to you...

Re:Terrorists.

[LuxuryYacht]

As close as the article came to mentioning terrorists:

The magazine pointed out that rogue nations such as Iran routinely seek replacement parts for their U.S.-manufactured military planes.

Re:Terrorists.

[Lars T.]

Or they are from NASA, scavenging the stuff for old 8086 chips.

Pathetic...

[TheNecromancer]

Well, in my opinion, they should prosecute Novocin to the fullest extent of the law, since according to the Reuters article, he knew the parts were labeled "D" before he sold them on eBay. He could have just returned them to the US Air Force instead. They should also go after the supply depot too, since they suggested that he sell them on eBay.

What a bunch of idiots!

Re:Pathetic...

[Captain Chad]

Not Novocin's fault. From the article:

1. "Novocin informed the depot, who said they did not want the parts and suggested he sell them on eBay."

Typical government incompetency. It was only after Newsweek contacted them that they began to realize there was a problem.

Re:Pathetic...

[Merlin42]

Did he actually sell any of the "D" parts? It says that 11 of 18 were "D" and he sold 4 items .. he _might_ have only sold non "D" labeled items.
Also, did the packaging indicate that they needed to be destroyed or did it just have a big red "D" which he would not know the meaning of?

Re:Pathetic...

[Xaoswolf]

I would like to have heard the conversation before I place the blame. If it had gone something like this,

Novocin: I have some airplane parts

Depot: Your point?

Novocin: Do you want them?

Depot: What, of course I don't want your parts.

novocin: Well, what am I supposed to do with them?

Depot: Well you could try to sell them someplace else, I don't want to buy them

Novocin: Who else would want these things

Depot: I don't care, why don't you put them on eBay or something

Then I could see why the guys at the depot told him to sell them. However if the Novocin guy said"I just purchased a bunch of classified parts from a shipping company." Then it is completely the Depot's fault.

Re:Pathetic...

[mgarraha]

Here's the Newsweek article mentioned in the Reuters story. I think the shipper who was supposed to take the stuff from Dover to Warner Robins is at fault.

The Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service holds public auctions, but they exclude items with demil code "D".

Re:Pathetic...

[ChannelX]

What do you mean its not his fault? If the story is correct and he was aware of the status of the parts it is irrelevant what the depot said. If he didnt know the status and was told to just sell the stuff on ebay then fine...more power to him. But if he did know then he was well aware that he was committing a crime by selling the parts.

Re:Pathetic...

[BoneFlower]

He may have known they could be sensitive gear, but anyone with any familiarity with technology at all knows that it advances fast. These parts were in storage for 10 years+, when the depot said to sell them he may have assumed they said that because they were outdated and no longer needed. The depot would have asked what the parts were, a serial number, part number, item name, something! If they didn't ask what it was he specifically had, then they are at fault.

Re:Pathetic...

[bkr1_2k]

First of all, the article said he tried to return them and was told to sell them. Second, not all the parts were required destruction parts. The article doesn't mention whether or not the items sold were, but give the guy the benefit of the doubt here. He at least tried to return them properly (assuming the article is correct) and when told to sell them, he took the advice and made a little profit. The article also said he is cooperating with the Air Force who asked him to return the parts. There is no need to prosecute him for trying to be a decent person and still make his money back.

bkr

Re:Pathetic...

[LoRdTAW]

Prosecute them for what? I work for an electronics dealer who primarily sells/buys used military test and radio equipment. He recently purchased a lot of equipment from a navy base. Well among the equipment we found a military communications satellite transceiver that if you had the proper codes could listen in and transmit on the military satellite network. We also have a number of optical network interfaces that connect to the X-band port. This equipment was KNOWINGILY sent out of the base with the lot and sold to us. Now what's to stop us from selling it to any old Joe that happens to be looking for one? Nothing that's what. But we are selling it to another well known business that basically sells surplus back to the military so it will eventually find its way back to our government. This goes to show you how careless our government is in handling old equipment that is to be decommissioned.

At Least....

[Anonymous Coward]

...it went to the lowest bidder, so the government can't be all that mad.

Re:At Least....

[qurob]

LOL - Where are my mod points!?

The school I used to work for shouldn't have got mad when I sold their servers on eBay...

(It's funny because Government and schools bid out their...nevermind)

Lost in a warehouse?

[tmcmsail]

Isn't that where the Harrison Ford left the lost Arc?

The Air Farce, lost in space...
Fly Navy...

Re:Lost in a warehouse?

[tmcmsail]

whatever

Re:Lost in a warehouse?

[Conare]

Isn't that where the Harrison Ford left the lost Arc?
The guys at the depot must have been "Top Men"

is there anything

[paradesign]

as truly american as ebay? its like the worlds largest garage sale. deep under the piles of shit stacked as high as landfills are some rare finds. plus if the gvmnt didnt want them sold they should have kept hold of them in the first place, instead of losing them like the abomb in sum of all fears.

Re:is there anything

[crevette]

I'm just curious. I haven't seen the movie (is it out yet anyway?) and I just started the book. But, how come an aircraft carrier cannot get hit?

Re:is there anything

[Anonymous Coward]

A US aircraft carrier can't be hit for the same reason the World Trade Center towers won't ever be hit, either.

Re:is there anything

[Zathrus]

It can be hit, but not like what was shown in the movie (yes it is out -- it bears fairly little relation to the book, but is a pretty good movie. If you can handle the very well presented nuclear explosion killing a few million people on US soil. It's gut wrenching.)

SPOILER ALERT

The movie showed an aircraft carrier in the Northern Sea (or thereabouts) getting hit by multiple Russian bombers with no warning and no air defense except for its own AEGIS cannons.

Reality is that there are always 2 or more jets and usually an AWACS plane in the air to provide air defense and early warning. Carriers are big. Carriers are slow. Carriers are expensive. And pilots need the training anyway, in all conditions.

On top of that this was shortly after a nuclear explosion inside of the continental US. SOP dictates that US forces would instantly go to highest readiness after such an incident - which would mean that carrier would have at last a full flight wing in the air, as well as being dead center of its carrier group. Any hostile trying to take out the carrier would have to go through a ring of aircraft - including AWACS with downward looking radar that doesn't really care if you're skimming the wave tops - followed by a ring of destroyers and cruisers. All fully armed with sea-to-air missiles and AEGIS anti-missile guns. Carrier groups are very expensive to operate. They're also pretty well impenetrable unless you use a nuke or somehow sneak a submarine in through thermal layers (and generally carrier groups have friendly hunter-killer subs nearby to prevent just that).

Re:is there anything

[ckimyt]

plus if the gvmnt didnt want them sold they should have kept hold of them in the first place, instead of losing them like the abomb in sum of all fears.

Um, I hope they didn't change the story that much from the book.

The plot was that originally the nuke was from India or Pakistan, who lost it off a plane that crashed. They couldn't look for it because they weren't letting on they had nuclear capabilities. The bomb was then reworked by some Soviet-era scientist working for one of the Evil-Doer Countries.

Re:is there anything

[Anonymous Coward]

The plot was that originally the nuke was from India or Pakistan, who lost it off a plane that crashed. They couldn't look for it because they weren't letting on they had nuclear capabilities.

Getting your facts confused with other stories? In The Sum of All Fears (the book) the plane was Israeli and the bomb was lost during the Six Day War.

Re:is there anything

[dmccarty]

if the gvmnt didnt want them sold they should have kept hold of them in the first place,

Ah yes, another gem of a post from someone who forgot to take their logic pills this morning. By the same flawgic, if you didn't want your wallet taken you shouldn't have left it in the theater in the first place, right?

Re:is there anything

[oni]

that carrier would have at last a full flight wing in the air, as well as being dead center of its carrier group. Any hostile trying to take out the carrier would have to go through a ring of aircraft - including AWACS with downward looking radar that doesn't really care if you're skimming the wave tops - followed by a ring of destroyers and cruisers. All fully armed with sea-to-air missiles and AEGIS anti-missile guns.

That's a pretty good summary of a basic fleet air defense. I think it's worth mentioning how the Soviet's actually planned to get through all that defense though.

The strategy is called a rollback. Basically, if you fire a lot missiles at an air defense system, each one will be intercepted a little closer to the target than the one before it. Slowly, the defenses are rolled back until missiles start getting through.

There's no way to stop a rollback. All Aegis or a good CWIS do is increase the number of missles required to roll the defenses back, or decrease the intercept range reduction from each missile. At some point, obviously, it would get too expensive (each cruise missile costs nearly 1mil) to fire that many - but it is always possible.

Other factors are fighter cover. The phoenix was designed to kill the bombers before they could launch (each backfire bomber destroyed = 3 cruise missiles). Submarines are a big factor. A submarine strike against one or two of the air defense cruisers (not the carrier itself) coordinated with the air strike is very effective.

Of course, the carrier group has its own subs to hunt the enemy subs. And the bombers can bring fighters to cover them. Offensive and defensive measures swing back and forth like that.

On top of that is the tactical use of all these weapons. When playing Harpoon, I used to like to feign an attack from one direction with a barrage launched by, say an Oscar submarine. Then I'd give the carrier taskforce just enough time to redeploy a couple of cruisers to that side and I'd hit them from the other side with a combined attack by bombers and subs.

If you're willing to spend the cash, it's really not all that hard to kill a single carrier. Of course, the bombers themselves need a large airbase - and that will be destroyed by the airforce right away... I could go on but you get the idea.

Re:is there anything

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh.. I thought the nuke in Sum of All Fears came from a shot-down Israeli jet? Can't blame the gov't for that one, except to ask why the fuck they gave nukes to the Israelis in the first place.

Re:is there anything

[mr_death]

Really, I took three deep breaths before responding.

Zathrus my boy, you're spouting acronyms without knowing what the hell you're talking about. A few of your errors:

1. An AWACS is an Air Force aircraft, built on a modified Boeing 707 airframe. There's no way that it would ever land on a carrier. You should have referenced the E-2 Hawkeye.

2. Carriers are one of the fastest surface vessels in the US Navy. The predominate term in the drag equation is the length of the waterline. Further, since most of our CVs are nuclear power, the CV doesn't burn excessive amounts of fuel when it goes fast.

3. Neither you or I know what's in the SOP, as the interesting bits are classified. It is a fair bet that every US ship would go to condition III (wartime cruising) after a WMD is detonated in the US.

4. AEGIS cannon?!?!? There's no such critter. See http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/weapo ns/wepaegis.html . My guess is that you meant CIWS (Close In Weapons System, the R2D2-looking Phalanx.)

5. As a deception, sometimes the oiler is in the center of the formation.

6. It may be difficult to penetrate the defenses of the battle group, but not impossible.

7. Boats do not cruise "through thermal layers" -- they are above or below the layer, as the situation dictates.

Re:is there anything

[Zathrus]

Appreciate the clarifications, seriously.

1 - got it... same general purpose though, correct?

2 - Yes, I know how fast they are. But a ship running 60 knots full-out is still slow compared to an aircraft or a missile. By at least an order of magnitude.

3 - No, we don't, but if going to full alert isn't SOP then someone in the brass needs to have their ass canned. As a point of reference (which I meant to include but didn't), I do believe all our military assets went to full alert after the September 11th attacks. This scenario is considerably worse.

4 - You are correct again. The movie shows the carrier using such a system to take out roughly 2/3's of the incoming missiles.

5-6 - Nod.

7 - I meant the submarine going below the layer to infiltrate the battle group, and then going up to fire (if necessary - or just firing from beneath it if possible).

You are very correct in that I had a good bit of the terminology wrong on the details, and your evenhanded corrections ARE appreciated... but it's still considerably more accuate than what the movie depicted (gee - the US just got nuked, so we'll have a helicopter, a few F-15s, and a Hawkeye sitting idle on the flight deck in storage mode, not even being prepped for flight ops).

Re:is there anything

[identity0]

Jeez. I think you're not seeing the forest for the trees. Zathrus's main point is still valid - a carrier would be a lot harder to kill than depicted, though not impossible. So, let's go over it again -

1) AWACS stands for Air Warning And Control System. It's the name of the Air Force plane, but's it's also a generic term applied to all planes whose mission is to provide radar cover and direct friendly planes.
...
3) Most of it may be classified, but people have been discussing SOP for close to 50 years - the general stuff seems to be known.

4) More nitpicking.
...
7) Submariners refer to their subs as "boats" even if that is grammatically incorrect.

Not that all of this matters, of corse...

Re:is there anything

[i]

Yes

Re:is there anything

[btellier]

I fail to see your logic. Yes, of course I shouldn't have left it in the theatre if I didn't want it to be taken.

As for the original poster, I disagree with the idea that he should be able to sell military technology on e-bay. What if was a missle that he was trying to sell? What if a foreign radical wants to study use data gleaned from these parts to be able to detect and shoot down our soldiers in the spy planes? No person outside of the US and affiliated military could possibly have any legitimate use for these parts.

I believe the government should compensate him for the cost of the auction, research time and maybe a little "finder's fee" then take their parts back. The parts are kept secret for a reason, you know.

Re:is there anything

[Samrobb]

5. As a deception, sometimes the oiler is in the center of the formation

Ummm... no. While the carrier's a nuke, the planes on it aren't, and high tempo ops chew through JP-5 like nobody's business. Likewise, while some of the ships the carrier is relying on for AAW/ASW are nuclear powered, the vast majority are not.

At least when I left the Navy, doctine (fairly old, established and time tested) was that in a typical carrier formation, the oiler and the carrier were both critical, high-value assets... loosing either one would seriously degrade the effectiveness of the entire task force. Of course, it was also doctrine that such formations kept a few miles seperation between the oiler and other ships, if at all possible... I'm sure you can imagine why :-/

Re:is there anything

[markmoss]

There's no way to stop a rollback.

Not necessarily true. Identify where the missiles are coming from and bomb it, or send fighters down a parallel path to the missiles to hook in and kill the launching airplanes or stop part of the missiles _early_. The problem is, likely the theater commanders have to call Washington for permission to bomb, and it takes too long. There was a time when you also had to worry about whether our planes could penetrate to where they needed to be to cut off the flow (short of asking for an ICBM launch), but I doubt that's an issue anywhere now - if the commander has permission to risk a few aircrews before his entire fleet is at risk!

Re:is there anything

[markmoss]

in a typical carrier formation, the oiler and the carrier were both critical, high-value assets... loosing either one would seriously degrade the effectiveness of the entire task force. Of course, it was also doctrine that such formations kept a few miles seperation between the oiler and other ships, if at all possible...
Oilers are replaceable. Carriers aren't. Of course, considering the appetite of the destroyers for fuel oil as well as the air wing's consumption of JP-5, losing an oiler too soon might mean aborting the plan until a new oiler arrives.

In WWII, sometimes oilers were mistaken for carriers. At the battle of the Coral Sea, not only did a scout plane report an oiler as a carrier, but about 100 Japanese airplanes bombed and torpedoed it, apparently without noticing the mistake, because their commander claimed one "carrier". (It was going home with empty tanks, and it actually didn't sink until the Navy took the crew off and scuttled it.) I doubt that anyone would make that mistake at close range with a modern carrier, but if you were shooting cruise missiles from 200 miles, one great big long ship gives the same radar reflection as another...

Re:is there anything

[markmoss]

3. Carriers might be the fastest ship (at least in heavy weather), but they really hate to outrun the escorting destroyers/cruisers/frigates, because then some little boat could sneak up on the carrier and blow large holes in it. And the escorts are not nuclear.

Do nuke carriers still carry some fuel oil so they can refuel their escorts in an emergency? As far as I know, fleet oilers can keep up in a normal cruise, but get left far behind when the warships crank up the shaft RPM's.

Re:is there anything

[oni]

Identify where the missiles are coming from and bomb it, or send fighters down a parallel path

Yes definitely. But you know, if it goes as planned the aircraft are already on their way home by the time the first of the missiles are spotted. They're all launched at pretty much the same time, and remember these are large cruise missiles we're talking about here.

Re:is there anything

[Samrobb]

Oilers are replaceable. Carriers aren't.

Well, there are more active carriers in the fleet than oilers, so at least by one measurement, they're harder to replace :-) (AFAIK, the majority of the USN oilers have been replaced by USNS ships.)

I don't think that oilers are "as valuable" as carriers... but in a combat situation, if a carrier group looses it's oiler, the choice is to either carry on, retreat to pick up a new oiler, or wait for a replacement to arrive. In the first case, the effectiveness of the carrier group is now limited by fuel supplies - sooner or later, they need to fall back to one of the other options. In the second case, the effectiveness is compltely negated. In the third case, while the carrier group can continue to operate tactically, you have to commit another group as an escort for the new oiler.

The same holds true for other ships, obviously - depending on the tactical situation, an oiler might be more "expendable" than a cruiser. Strategically, though, loosing an oiler is a big deal, in any situation; while it won't have the same immediate impact as the loss of the carrier, it will have a long-term impact that makes it's intentional use as a carrier decoy problematic. As you point out, it's use as a decoy in this day and age is more a side effect of radar cross-section and position in the battle group than anything else.

X Band Weather Modulator?

[Black Aardvark House]

I was all excited, reading it first as the Iludium Pu 36 Explosive Space Modulator!

Here's one of the finished auctions..

[xtermz]

Did a search on ebay for X-Band in completed items, and this came up. Guy's ebay id is estateauctionsinc , looks like he's just a guy who buys stuff at estate sales and such. Ebay has him listed as being from Jacksonville, so I looked up Norb Novcain in the white pages and yep, he's from Jacksonville...

Re:Here's one of the finished auctions..

[tssm0n0]

Taking a quick browse through the feedback posted on the buyers, I see a lot of "Great international customer!" type of comments. Looks like he was shipping this all over the place. At least he didn't have bLaden listed as the highest bidder.

Re:Here's one of the finished auctions..

[shaldannon]

You really think Osama would sign up on eBay as bLaden?

As a side note, this sports entertainment place I frequent has a picture of Osama on the pee mat....I guess someone decided he could turn a profit and make every red-blooded American man pleased with himself for contributing to his country's honor...

Re:Here's one of the finished auctions..

[tssm0n0]

You really think Osama would sign up on eBay as bLaden?

Very good point. Perhaps he used his email address, obinladen@taliban.org

Re:Here's one of the finished auctions..

[mikael_j]

Actually, he's not a taliban, he's the leader of the Alqaeda(al-qeada/al-qaida/alqaida/whatever) network, so it would be alqaeda.org (or .net since it's a "terrorist network")

/Mikael

Re:Here's one of the finished auctions..

[tssm0n0]

Yes, but I figured taliban.org would work too since his organization has (had?) close ties to the taliban and I didn't want to mess with spelling "Alqaeda(al-qeada/al-qaida/alqaida/whatever)"

Irony

[blankmange]

I thought the ironic part of this was the supply depot not wanting them back and suggesting that they be sold on eBay....

So, if I have some quasi-classified aircraft parts I need to send from point A to point B, how would I get them there -- and if they were 'lost' on the way, would I just write them off?

The Air Force is upset that the parts were offered for sale and then subsequently sold? Sounds like a comedy of errors....

Re:Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

The Air Force is upset that the parts were offered for sale and then subsequently sold?

No, they're upset everyone can see their stuopid butts hung out to dry in public. Again.

Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[cybrpnk2]

Here's the Completed Items page for this vendor that includes the USAF items mentioned at the bottom of the web page.

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[echucker]

For the lazy, here are the items that actually sold, the prices, and buyers. Note that only one bid was received in each case.

SR-71 C-9 Circuit for HF Radio AN/ARC-190 yqz $32.24 tj913
KC-10 C-5 X-Band Radar Modlatr AN/APS-133 yqz $586.98 fedx2
Secure Digital VHF Panel Assy AN/ARC-106 yqz $67.80 strale64
F-16 C-130 AN/ARC-186 Radio Rear Assy yqz $28.52 k4bdj@sensible.net

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[skroz]

I want to know how he arrived at those prices...

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[Mononoke]

So, the F-16 C-130 AN/ARC-186 Radio Rear Assy yqz $28.52 was purchased by k4bdj@sensible.net.

Visit one other web site and I find that k4bdj is:

MC LENDON, DAVID K, K4BDJ
2510 SEVEN ISLANDS RD
BUCKHEAD, GA 30625

Ah, now I remember why I don't use my ham callsign online.

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[Anonymous Coward]

these are the final auction bid prices, not random prices that the sell chose

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[ClickNMix]

Note that only one bid was received in each case.

Maybe he should have posted about the sales on here, he would have taken loads of bids then! ;o)

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[skroz]

Indeed, but look at the reserve prices he set. I'm very curious about how he arrived at those reserve prices.

Re:Here's The Actual EBay Pages...

[btellier]

If you read the e-bay listings he says that he's selling everything for 5% of their "military worth". How this "military worth" price is determined I have no idea, but it's probably the amount they were purchased for in 1989. If you take into account the military's $1000 For a Hammer Principle, you're probably not getting that great of a deal at 5% ;)

Selling and buying parts

[andyring]

Hmmm, with these people selling Air Force, etc., parts, and NASA looking to buy parts from eBay, maybe these two groups could get together on this! NASA gets the parts they need, and bin Laden or Hussein's cronies don't buy F16 parts.

Might not be true

[brejc8]

My old physics teacher used to be in the army and I'm not sure how true this is but he claims that during the sixties UK was holding most of its plutonium reserve in an unmarked warehouse in New York.
When they did tell the New York mayor he wasnt pleased at all.

Re:Might not be true

[Papineau]

Hope it wasn't the UK reserve in NY... although it makes sense to keep some unmarked plutonium reserve in a foreign country rather than on it's own soil. If something goes wrong, it's far enough, and you can always blame somebody else if it's robbed.

Reporter missed the point.

[OaITw]

In a top notch piece of reporting we are told the defense department is investigating how an antiques dealer bought a bunch of defense related parts at an unclaimed property sale at a warehouse and then sold them on ebay for a profit. I imagine a house subcommittee will soon be on the case also. My parents own warehouses. Unclaimed property sales are standard proceedures. Neither the warehouse owner or the buyer knows ahead of time what is being sold. Since there is no mystery there, the government investigators must be stuck on how exactly someone gets an item listed on ebay. I have actually found the ebay interface fairly understandable, but if the investigator are not computer savy it may present some problems I am sure. Next step of course will be to investigate how exactly the antique dealer got that little blue star next to his name. Very suspecious indeed.

Re:Reporter missed the point.

[Anonymous Coward]

he he :)

Re:Reporter missed the point.

[Anonymous Coward]

Blue stars aren't a problem. What you have to worry about are the red stars, which signify communist buyers. Those commies will bury us yet, I tell you!

-- The_Messenger

supped up sesna

[shftleft]

Oooh... now i can spy on my girlfriend from 3000 feet up.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Conspiracy afoot

[blankmange]

This guy in Jacksonville is a front for the CIA/FBI/NSA - see who buys this "lost" stuff and find out who/what/where/why on this person(s).... yeah, that's it...yeah, that's it...

Just kidding, but with all the other goofy stuff that flies around out there, why not?

Re:Conspiracy afoot

[Anonymous Coward]

actually not a bad idea, it probably was one of those cases where the bust went down before they could inform the army he was under cover.

What's next?

[PissingInTheWind]

Drugs, kidneys, virginity... Now classified plane parts.

How long before they get to sell an alzheimer-suffering ex-president on EBay?

Re:What's next?

[fabiolrs]

holly shit people actually bid on kidneys? :/

Re:What's next?

[Anonymous Coward]

as soon as he is no longer president :-)

Re:What's next?

[davmct]

Will a Bobble-head Ronald Reagan do?

Re:What's next?

[Porag_Spliffing]

> How long before they get to sell an alzheimer-suffering ex-president on EBay?

Hardly worth the effort, I have no doubt that supply far exceeds demand

Re:What's next?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but after dating P-Diddy, she's damaged goods. Probably still has broken teeth and a bleeding arsehole. (The bleeding arsehole isn't from his wang, mind you -- Puffy is so small that he couldn't get past the butt cheeks -- but he used to hide little pieces of glass in her food.)

-- The_Messenger

Re:What's next?

[Anonymous Coward]

>we could play "Naughty Sith Lord"

I'd make them play "Lick the Lollypop" with my dong as the candy.

Re:What's next?

[Anonymous Coward]

Moving to canada? it's not like canada has any security. I mean really? Who would attack canada? That's like beating up the kid in a wheelchair at school. You don't do it unless you want to get your ass kicked.

oops

[shftleft]

spelled cessna wrong... now i guess you know i dont have one :)

Sounds like a good idea

[Sapphon]

Maybe the Australian Government should start ordering its military equipment over Ebay - it'll probably get there faster than the choppers they ordered *grin* N.B. I'm Australian, so it's hardly trolling or flamebait

Re:Sounds like a good idea

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad to see that Australia is one Brit-wannabe country who knows how to defend itself. The Canadians, on the other hand, are in deep shit -- they're located right next to the biggest terrorist target on Earth, and have nothing to defend themselves but a few dozen secondhand F/A-18s. (And, of course, the Mounties.)

But why are you Aussies buying US military kit? Shouldn't you be buying EuroFighters (heh) and such? You'll never get into the EU if you don't start showing some pansy solidarity.

I'm American, so it's definitely trolling and flamebait.

-- The_Messenger

20/20 Stort from years back

[Red Weasel]

was about a man who purchased things from government auctions for a living. Some of the things that he acquired included Reagan's automated signature signer and the tracking system of a ICBM. He returned the guidance system, but only after he got 3 offers for it in the 10 mil range. Thats how he discovered what the big box he bought contained.

That still Cracks me up.

What's the fuss?

[melquiades]

Seems to me that the Air Force should have bid on the item like everyone else.

I know things are tight at the defense defense department these days, what with only billions of dollars to waste instead of billions and billions and billions ... but I'm sure they could have scrounged up the money for a winning bid. :)

Actually, I wonder if the reason the DoD can't seem to pass an independent audit, and in fact can only account for about a third of their budget, is that they're already blowing all their dough buying antique lamp shades on eBay.

The gov't should have just outbid everyone else

[mlarios]

I'm sure they could have just outbid all the other people on eBay if it was that important to them. I'm just concerened that I can't get my wife the X-Band Weather Radar Modulator she wanted for our anniversary. Oh well.

What's next?

[pstreck]

This is just another example of how poor our government security really is... I'm moving to canada

Flea Markets

[Alien54]

Heck you can find all kinds of things, some of the strangest things, at the MIT Flea Market. Perfect for the budding and experienced mad scientist.

There is also this list of electronics flea markets for the North East

I imagine there are a few someplace near silicon valley as well as CalTech, etc.

;-)

Re:Flea Markets

[Ezubaric]

> I imagine there are a few someplace near silicon
> valley as well as CalTech, etc.

Hell no. Not at Caltech. Every night moles scour the piles of discarded equipment outside Jorgensen and Steele (our CS / EE) buildings and claim it for Caltech. It then goes for decoration, inceneration, or other mischief.

We're not about to part with our cool stuff.

Re:Flea Markets

[Zurgutt]

This reminds me of a old soviet-time anecdote:

Q: Does the hydrogen bomb really exist?
A: No. If it did, it would be on sale on Odessa flea market.

:)

No product support from US Goverment?

[Chicane-UK]

This quote is amusing..

The magazine pointed out that rogue nations such as Iran routinely seek replacement parts for their U.S.-manufactured military planes.

I just find it funny.. the US must have sold them the planes in the first place.. and now that Iran falls into an area under the Axis Of Evil moniker, its suddenly a serious problem that they try and obtain parts? Perhaps you should have thought of that...

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[t_allardyce]

Thats what capitalism gets you - everyone for themselves to make as much money as posible. Most politicians would sell their own kids if they would make enough. And since the CIA etc. _trained_ half the worlds rulers and terrorists it would stand to reason that it would give them a going away present of maybe a couple of warheads and some bombers. That reminds me, does anyone know the going price of weapons grade plutonium?

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[bourne]

I just find it funny.. the US must have sold them the planes in the first place.. and now that Iran falls into an area under the Axis Of Evil moniker, its suddenly a serious problem that they try and obtain parts? Perhaps you should have thought of that...

I hate to have to bring up actual history, but you do realize there was some revolution thingy between us selling the planes to the Iran and them currently seeking parts for them?

No shit - look it up. Or maybe the 1979 Iranian Embassy Hostage Crisis rings a bell? You know, 1.5 years of American hostages, rescue mission gone horribly awry?

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[Tosta Dojen]

Before you jump on the "bash the incompetent gov't" wagon, check your facts. Iran was a solid American ally in the late 70s, when the US sold them many warplanes, including ~75 F-14 Tomcats. Very advanced stuff for the time.

Then there was a revolution. Iran's standing government was overthrown, and replaced by one that was hostile to the US. A hostile administration in possession of all that advanced technology is hardly a good situation, but not really the US government's fault. "Oh, we should have seen the Iranian revolution coming. Oops!" Get real.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[Wudbaer]

Well, Iraq got along without any revolutions. First they were the good guys and got a lot of nice toys (first gulf war), then - omygod - they suddendly were very bad boys and invaded Kuwait.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[bourne]

Well, Iraq got along without any revolutions. First they were the good guys and got a lot of nice toys (first gulf war), then - omygod - they suddendly were very bad boys and invaded Kuwait.

The enemy of my enemy is only my friend as long as he doesn't turn around and beat up my other friends.

If the US only allied ourselves with good guys, it would be us and Canada. And, quite frankly, that's only assuming Canada would have us.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Actually, we should have seen the Iranian revolution coming. We propped up the incompetent, corrupt, and increasingly unpopular government of the Shah and dismissed Khomeini as a fringe nutcase while he was gathering immense popular support. The CIA agents in the region spent all their time playing James Bond at fancy Tehran hotels and restaurants instead of gathering intelligence on the street.

Other than that, what you said.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[rikkards]

We take anyone including terrorists and former Somali worlords!

Moderators please note this was a joke..

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[dr_dank]

The magazine pointed out that rogue nations such as Iran routinely seek replacement parts for their U.S.-manufactured military planes.

As such, I will not accept bids from the Axis of Evil&#169 without a feedback rating of 10 or more.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[Happy go Lucky]

I just find it funny.. the US must have sold them the planes in the first place.. and now that Iran falls into an area under the Axis Of Evil moniker, its suddenly a serious problem that they try and obtain parts? Perhaps you should have thought of that...

There've been a few changes between now and then. Iran bought a dozen or so F-14A fighters back in the 1970's. This was back when Shah Pahlavi was in charge over there and Ford or Carter was president here.

The Shah fell in 1979, to be replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeni, who indeed was the Hezbollah's best friend. We couldn't really take the planes back.

By cannibalizing most of the planes, Iran may have been able to keep two or three in the air. However, they probably still have 1970's avionics, and parts can't be that easy to find.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[Wudbaer]

The enemy of my enemy is only my friend as long as he doesn't turn around and beat up my other friends.

This is certainly right, but I think it always pays to have a very careful look at the guy you are making friends with.

I don't think Saddam Hussein was much less insane than he is today back in the 80's, and also giving everyone in Afghanistan who would take it lots of usable weapons just because they were fighting those ugly reds proved not to be a very clever idea. Ok, one is always smarter afterwards, but also in this case it might have been somewhat ironic that the US were outfitting the Iraqis to fight the Mullahs in Iran while almost in parallel arming muslim extremists in neighbouring Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[bourne]

Ok, one is always smarter afterwards, but also in this case it might have been somewhat ironic that the US were outfitting the Iraqis to fight the Mullahs in Iran while almost in parallel arming muslim extremists in neighbouring Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.

In both cases, the goal was achieved:

• Afghanistan - USSR unable to push a land corridor down to a warm-water port on the Indian Ocean
• Iraq - Iran checked from extending to the western side of the Persian Gulf.

Was it worth the cost? So far, yes, but personally I think the US would be a lot better off sinking 20 years of money into nuclear plants and electric infrastructure and letting the middle east go to hell on their own. Fighting for oil is necessary today (what do you think powers Slashdot and your PC?) but that's a dead-end game eventually, and the winners will be the ones willing to make the jump (while the losers will be oil-based welfare states with population explosion and repressive social and political structures. Again, let's get out before they explode).

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[slam smith]

I just find it funny.. the US must have sold them the planes in the first place..

Don't worry we voided the warranty on them.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[slam smith]

I think the US would be a lot better off sinking 20 years of money into nuclear plants and electric infrastructure

Oil isn't really used any more in the U.S. for Electricity generation. Nukes wouldn't really reduce our foreign oil dependance. Having said that I still think it would be a great idea.

Re:No product support from US Goverment?

[bourne]

Oil isn't really used any more in the U.S. for Electricity generation.

You are correct! I was suprised to note that:

2000 Net generation: 3.8 trillion kilowatthours
Coal 52%
Nuclear 20%
Gas 16%
Hydro 7%
Oil 3%
Non-hydro Renewable 2%

(DOE)

Still, the transportation industry is heavily dependent on petroleum, and if we switched from petroleum to hydrogen-based or electric, we would need to bump the power generation correspondingly - which still means nukes, because all of the others above are limited.

Address for SR-71 part auction

[genka]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?Vi ewItem&item=1831196414&r=0&t=0
Picture is not exciting. Just a circuit board.

Re:Address for SR-71 part auction

[Anonymous Coward]

Awesome, now I can finally get my homebuilt SR-71 off the ground!

LOL, aside from being good mantlepieces for X-Files losers, these "spare parts" are useless by themselves. This is hilarious. I'm going to buy a few dozen capacitors ar Radio Shack and sell them as "UFO scrap" on eBay for $20/each.

-- The_Messenger

Canada's record not so good either

[shaldannon]

In 2001, NPR had a story about how a sizable portion of Canada's ground hardware was stuck on a Russian shipping vessel just off the east coast because the vessel's owners wanted to be paid for the shipment back to Canada, the Canadian government had paid a contractor, and the contractor had gone out of business without paying the Russian shipper.

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, but at least our DOD knew where its stuff was.

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[Anonymous Coward]

At least they new were the stuff is. And besides, it was mostly broken down Seaking helecopters that nobody wanted back anyways.

When you hear about this stuff from the US, it is a lot more intimidating because they have nuclear and biological weapons for peats sake. It makes you wonder about the security and storage conditions of that stuff if some guy can just buy parts to the SR-71 (the most clasified plane in history) and sell them in a public market such as ebay. The US DoD isn't winning any trust here.

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[nesthigh]

I think you mean this incident. I was in Canada at the time, and recall a few of the gorey details not mentioned in the AP story. Notice how it reads "from a helicopter", apparently they sent three helicopters but two had to go back because of mechanical failure. Also, I seem to recall that the choppers were really old like 20+ years, and that they didn't have enough spare parts to keep the majority of them opperational.

It's a wonder they were able to destroy the Baldwin's compound with such ease. ;-)

Next

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[Anonymous Coward]

The sea kings are about 30+ year old design (course they upgrade them as they go but structurally....).

Now the big stink in Canada now is that when Cretin oops I mean Chretien (the Prime Minister) got into power, he had a contract that was to replace the Sea King with a newer helicopter canceled because the contract (which cost money to cancel) was set up during the previous party's time at power stating it was too expensive. Well the helicopters still need to be replaced and people have died because of failures and one of the types of helicopters up for bid is the same one that was canceled and while Jean is in power there is no way that the one in the last contract will win (there are rumours in the newspapers that was why the Minister of Defence got axed because he couldn't guarantee the outcome of the contract bidding).

All I can say is that if the Liberals are re-elected with Chretien at the helm again then Canadians are the biggest F-ing idiots (again). I can say this since: 1. I am Canadian and 2. I didn't vote for him.

We won't talk about Stockwell "The Earth is only 5000 years old" Day either.

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[topham]

The helicopters aren't 20 years old, they are a heck of a lot older than that. But our government jets are being replaced after only 17 years of service.

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[JahToasted]

All I can say is that if the Liberals are re-elected with Chretien at the helm again then Canadians are the biggest F-ing idiots (again). I can say this since: 1. I am Canadian and 2. I didn't vote for him.

We won't talk about Stockwell "The Earth is only 5000 years old" Day either.

So who do you vote for? The Liberals are corrupt and incompetent, the Alliance is a bunch of rednecks, the Tories are a bunch of has-beens, and the NDP are a bunch of idealists who are incapable of running a real government.

I of course vote consistently for the NDP, but only because I know they won't win...

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[danielobvt]

Care to back up that biological weapon assertion? That was broken up in the 70's.

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[Anonymous Coward]

Canada's ground hardware

Thats like, logging trucks and stuff, right? :)

-Greg

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[rikkards]

There is some truth to they don't build them like they used to. From what I have heard the F-101 was a more ruggedly built machine than the F-18. (This is from a Canadian Pilot who flew both)

Re:Canada's record not so good either

[rikkards]

There is always the Green Party :)

I've always said there are only two real parties in Canada. The Bloq and everyone else.

How about an ass kicking?

[zerofoo]

You can also buy an ass kicking....if you're into that sort of thing. Bid here -ted

There is

[shaldannon]

I dunno where you get them, but I visit this sports place that has Osama bin Laden pee mats...top that!

Re:There is

[Anonymous Coward]

You just know some dumbass is going to sue them for racism or something.

Re:There is

[Anonymous Coward]

Around here we use a toilet for peeing.

Have a nice day

Cooperation

[mstyne]

The Air Force is looking into the incident and Novocin is cooperating.

Air Force: "You should be seeing a squadron of B-2 Spirits flying over your corporate headquarters in about ten minutes."

Novocin: "Um, yeah, so whaddya wanna know?"

Not a surprise

[BoneFlower]

I've seen ebay ads for high end crypto gear. Technically unclassified itself, but it was built to fill hardware crypto keys, the crypto being quite classified when paired with the hardware it went to. With a couple connections in the right places, someone could use that to fill a STU-III(secure telephone) with current crypto

Re:Not a surprise

[s.a.m]

True, but they're migrating a lot of it to STE's

Norb Novocin?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, I don't remember him from any of the Star Wars movies. Was he a bounty hunter or something?

Top Secret? Not really...

[Wag]

Come on, we have 30yr obsolete technology that was lost in the mail, and it wasn't really looked for all that hard.

It's not like anybody who wanted to know about this stuff, what with so many of our FBI and CIA agents selling information to anybody who had the $$$$.

Hasn't anyone noticed how similar the Soviet Space Shuttle looked to ours?

What bothers me the most

[T5]

isn't the altimeters or weather gear, but the IFF (identify friend or foe) transmitter. Properly coded (which is the hard part), this could prevent friendly forces from being able to automatically target an incoming aircraft from a hostile force, as well as providing a way for a hostile aircraft to approach friendly forces.

Re:What bothers me the most

[danielobvt]

Properly coded (which is the hard part) This is the important part. Seeing as how the crypto changes on a daily basis for the military IFF and considering how carefully protected that crypto is, this does not really concern me.

Re:What bothers me the most

[markmoss]

What bothers me the most is] the IFF (identify friend or foe) transmitter. I really, really hope that IFF does not depend on security by obscurity, but rather on keeping the codes secret and changing them often. Planes fly all over the world with the same IFF gear, some of them will fall into unfriendly hands. Of course, it makes a bit of a difference whether those hands are a Taliban peasant who doesn't understand anything more complex than an AK-47, or (say) a Saudi terrorist millionaire who can buy a research lab to analyze it... But at any rate, once a system like this has been widely deployed for a couple of years, you have to assume the guys with the most technological capability have obtained copies - so your security had better be in the codes.

Sign of the times..

[k98sven]

Wow is the world changing, you can buy -everything- online now..

(shameless plug..)
I remember, back during the Cold War, we didn't have the internet,
we had to sell these things at secret meetings with the "attaché for tourism" from the embassy of some shady nation..

You had to get plane tickets to all these wierd,
exotic locations like Geneva and the Caribbian, to meet these jerks. (They never even said thanks)

Nowadays, I don't even have to leave my nice CIA office, and I always get the best price for my contraband! Ebay is great!

(/shameless plug)

Way Offtopic - Sum of all fears

[saider]

I thought they got the bomb from an Israeli jet that had crashed in the 1967 war. It originally had a nuke attached, but the ground crew forgot to detach it when they were rearming the plane with conventional bombs. The plane crashed and the bomb landed in a field in Lebanon or Syria. Some farmer eventually ploughed it up and reported it to his local Hezbolla chief.

If I recall. It has been a while since I read the book.

Re:Way Offtopic - Sum of all fears

[netringer]

I thought they got the bomb from an Israeli jet that had crashed in the 1967 war. It originally had a nuke attached, but the ground crew forgot to detach it when they were rearming the plane with conventional bombs. The plane crashed and the bomb landed in a field in Lebanon or Syria. Some farmer eventually ploughed it up and reported it to his local Hezbolla chief. If I recall. It has been a while since I read the book.

You got it right. The bad guys were Muslim terrorists, too. They used an East German nuke scientist to make the conventionat Israeli nuke into a H-bomb and set it off from a news van parked outside the Super Bowl in Denver(Phoenix?) The President was supposed to be there with his girlfriend and he takes the attack as attempt on him personally.

According to Roger Ebert the movie changed the bad guys to neonazis so they could sell it in Arab countries, where action pictures do well. I'll bet they wish they had reconsidered that decision after 9/11.

Re:Way Offtopic - Sum of all fears

[ninjalex]

Right on. In the book it was Denver. Also their 3 stage nuke fizzled. Loss of life in the book wasn't outrageus, but there was a hell of a mess to clean up.

On a side note, WTF did they screw up the timeline so badly? Ryan was 10 years older in the book, married with 2 kids. Also DaFoe sucked as Mr. Clark in Clear and Present Danger, and the dude in this one was better, but about 15 years too young. The movie was set in 2004, kinda hard to find a 30 YO vietnam vet ya know?

Re:Way Offtopic - Sum of all fears

[Sabalon]

And the plutonium came from the Savannah River plant.

I didn't think DaFoe was that bad - the character was written bad. Anyway, the movie had Ryan 10 years younger because they thought that people would be very confused if Ryan went from Baldwin->Ford->Affleck - his age would have dropped back down. Now all I hear is "why was the movie in the future, but Ryan got younger".

It's not like people had a problem when Bond kept getting younger - hell, half the people I know that saw it were probably about 10-12 when Clear and Present Danger came out anyway.

Then again, we know how hollywood thinks about us people with minds :)

Classified parts..

[ldopa1]

Anyone know where I can score a Hellfire missile?? I searched on Ebay under

Stuff>> Parts>> Govt.>> Weapons>> Missiles>> Classified>> Anti-Radar>> Anti-Tank for "Hellfire" and I got NADA... But I did find a nice AIM-4D Falcon that the Koreans are offloading...

This is ridiculous! I had no problems picking up a sightly used Sun, 81" of snow, a Russian test space shuttle and the Ark of the Covenant (presumably being sold by one Dr. Jones)...

I'm looking at a slightly used V-22 Osprey (no reserve!) on www.ebayplanesthatcrashoften.com, but even though it has no reserve, it's starting bid is $945M....

I guess I'm just a dick.

Too bad

[r_j_prahad]

If only Novocin had found a warehouse full of hammers and toilet seats, he could have been rich beyond his wildest dreams! Everybody in USAF procurement knows that's where the real money is.

Re:Too bad

[sharkey]

hammers and toilet seats...that's where the real money is.

Don't forget the toilet paper. Can't have our boys getting chafed you know. Sure as hell don't want 'em getting splinters from the TP like the $ENEMY_ARMY_OF_THE_DAY does.

Re:Too bad

[mOdQuArK!]

Heh - I wonder if they have plans in the "dirty tricks" department for sabotaging an enemy's toilet paper supply with finely ground glass? (ouch)

Who modded this up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Get real...."so many of our FBI and CIA agents selling information"? A few bad apples in the entire corps of agents does not make an entirely corrrupt department. The media must love you for buying into all their crap.

Re:Who modded this up?

[Wag]

Ever hear of "sarcasm"? Apparently not.

As far as modding it up, I actually bother to log-in and post intelligently from time to time.

Re:Who modded this up?

[Anonymous Coward]

u r not funny. or intelligent. plz die thx.

Damn!

[cymraeg]

...X-Band Weather Radar Modulator...

When I first read that, I was thinking of Marvin the Martian's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. I've always wanted one of those, but I keep getting outbid by some wasckaly wabbit.

Marvin The Martian

[bludstone]

THE X-Band Weather Radar Modulator.. that creature has stolen the Radar Modulator! There was supposed to be an earth shattering KABOOM!!

*end marvin the martian voice*

Is E-bay Cheaper

[Lysander Luddite]

than the price the government orignally paid?

That's where the investigation should focus. :)

Damn

[Anonymous Coward]

Where the hell do you go to buy these unclaimed property lots, anyway? I want top-secret classified military gear too!

Shoulda made more money...

[purpledinoz]

I think those items could have been sold for much more than that....

No, it is clearly Novocin's fault.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not Novocin's fault. From the article: "Novocin informed the depot, who said they did not want the parts and suggested he sell them on eBay." Typical government incompetency. It was only after Newsweek contacted them that they began to realize there was a problem.

Here is what it says on e-bay: "We have spoken extensively with the experts at Warner Robbins Airforce Base since then and have been told that while they would love to buy these from us, there is a freeze on purchasing. Parts can only be purchased on a direct need basis."

He says clearly that the AFB wanted the items back, but couldn't come up with the cash he was demanding. What he did was unethical and wrong. Open and shut case here.

(THEY KNOW WE ARE SELLING THESE ON EBAY!)

Well

[karb]

Not too sure about things marked 'D', but I know the government can't hold normal people responsible for the dissemination of classified information. Normal, as in don't have a security clearance or haven't signed an NDA. That's why reporters can print stuff that has been leaked.

ah yes, those international criminal "auctions"

[mekkab]

After the "blue star" investigation they should investigate how that new browser window simply "popped up" without me knowing about it!

This falls in line with some research that I have done, involving the exploits of one british operative 00 (double-oh) 7 (seven).

It seems he sabotaged an international arms auction. Afterwards he helped sink a "stealth boat". I wonder if this "antiques" dealer was at just such an auction...

Knowing those faggoty Brits,

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's more likely that their plutonium is kept in little velvet bags filled with potpourri. And the velvet bags are probably kept in the back of a pantry, behind a stack of tea cozies. The plutonium is guarded by an eighth-generation butler name Hobbleton, who gets very cross with the gangs of cockney boys who hide in the pachysandra bushes outside the kitchen window and throw pebbles at Hobbleton's head, all the while shouting, "'Ere, 'ere, Guvnuh, gimme some plutonium so I can make meself a nuc'ler bomb, I say!" Oh, those faggoty Brits... when will they ever learn?

-- The_Messenger

Re:Knowing those faggoty Brits,

[Anonymous Coward]

The velvet bags are a nice touch.

Ebay is great for plutonium/uranium too

[hklingon]

You need some uranium?

I sure wish I had ebay when I was a kid...

Re:Ebay is great for plutonium/uranium too

[trelaneopn]

yeah, how funny is it though moderator? a 5lb block of crap uranium ore, refined is about a quarter lb of weapons grade uranium, hey, that'd only take out what? a few city blocks, HAR HAR HAR, pardon me while I laugh at you

Re:Ebay is great for plutonium/uranium too

[RevRigel]

Only a small fraction of the Uranium ore is elemental Uranium. And only .2% of that is the isotope U-235, which is weapons grade. And you need equipment that costs big money to do the U-235/U-238 separation, and deal with extremely deadly crap like Uranium hexafluoride.

Re:Ebay is great for plutonium/uranium too

[banking_intern]

Not just the cost of equipment, but the POWER. Unless you use the current us classified seperation system you turn uranium into a gas by mixing it with florine and difuse it across a GREAT many membraines. The plant in ohio that used to do this had it's OWN 200MW poer plant to run itself. The cost is huge for weapons grade materials and it is very hard to create. Natural uranium sells for about $10 a pound if your intrested. Ahh the joys of working at enron and being paid to learn about nuclear weapons.

Link to e-bay items...

[Tails]

Man, C5 radar components are getting expensive!

Enjoy pictures and descriptions of the items in question:

Military sales at ebay

C'mon....the stuff is 12 years old!

[zerofoo]

The stuff was lost in a warehouse for 12 years....how "classified" can this stuff be? It sounds like a bunch of old radar equipment....big deal.

Now if they were nuke parts i'd be worried.

-ted

Re:C'mon....the stuff is 12 years old!

[jonerik]

The stuff was lost in a warehouse for 12 years....how "classified" can this stuff be? It sounds like a bunch of old radar equipment....big deal.

My understanding of past situations of this sort is that the military is concerned about the release of technology that might be obsolescent by our standards and those of our allies, but is still more advanced than what our enemies (or potential enemies) have access to. A 15-year-old communications circuit might not sound like such a big deal to us, but if you're the Chinese military and are typically working with technology that's 20 years behind what the Americans are using, it might be a very big deal indeed.

Lost A-bomb

[Anonymous Coward]

Not too surprising. When my grandfather worked for what became the CIA he had to track down a nuclear bomb that got lost in shipping. Apparently they shipped the bombs as "jet engines" and as a result one got routed to some airforce base where they needed jet enginges.

all your base...

[Anonymous Coward]

are on auction by Norb Novocin

Where can I get this?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been looking for an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator for some time...

You think this guy might have one? Maybe someone has one lying around from an Aurora?

Question for the Seller.

[srvivn21]

I wonder what the shipping charges are going to be...

Re:Question for the Seller.

[zerofoo]

Probably a plane ticket for the ass-kicker paid for by the ass-kickee.

-ted

X-band weather radar?

[racerx509]

And all this time I thought all they made were modems for 16bit video game systems.

fuck 'em

[Anonymous C0wherder]

put the merry band of poliTICKians in the Seakings for transport and give the military the new jets :) Nothing like heading to the front line in a Leer

Don't blame the surplus sales staff...

[AB3A]

Having purchased military surplus myself, I can honestly say that these folks have very little idea what they're working with. They're not paid enough to know that much.

Add that to the fact that these miscellaneous boxes of stuff were lost in a warehouse to begin with, and, well, what do you expect? The real guilty parties were the ones who didn't track down the original boxes when they were lost. After all, they could easily have fallen in to the wrong hands back then.

Nitpickers Unite!

[danielobvt]

Not F-15s, F-14s and F-18s were the aircraft on the deck during the movie. F15s are land based Air Force aircraft.
Though that whole scene made we want to stand up and yell BS. Those aircraft were shown firing way too close to the carrier. Every ship in that battlegroup should have been at GQ, given the current state of events. Her AEGIS equiped escorts should have seen those aircraft and been vectoring interceptors.

Though I will defend you on the AWACS bit. check out http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/e-2.htm . E-2 Hawkeye and E-3 Sentry are both AWACS, neither has exclusive rights to the title. AWACS is just the mission that the aircraft performs, not a descriptor of a specific airframe.

Re:Nitpickers Unite!

[Anonymous Coward]

E-3B Sentry == AWACS

E-2C Hawkeye == EWACS

Check out one of the winning bidder: strale64

[Anonymous Coward]

Did a search on this ebay id: strale64
He's buying lots of airplane parts

Punched Tape Reader? wtf??

[Anonymous Coward]

They still use punched tape readers on B52's???

"Hang on Hal, just inputting the firing coordinates into the ole punched tape reader.. Soon we'll upgrade to one of those new-fangled 8-inch disks"

Re:Punched Tape Reader? wtf??

[Anonymous Coward]

Punched tape is not affected by electomagetic pulses.

Mod parent -1 MISinformed

[ninjalex]

Mode 4 IFF is a totally different box. It feeds though the main IFF however. IFF is NOT a military only application. Every commercial airliner has an IFF transponder. Modes 1, 2, & 3/C help the air traffic controllers immensely. Mode 4 is military only, but, again a totally separate electronics package.

Get into the EU?!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it *look* like Australia is part of Europe?
Jeez, that sentence alone revealed you as being American.
Fucktard..