Slashdot Mirror
Hellfire Missile Mistakenly Shipped To Cuba
HughPickens.com writes: NPR reports that a Hellfire missile that was supposedly shipped to Europe for military exercises in 2014 somehow ended up in Cuba. It's still a mystery as to how the missile reached Cuba but the incident has "confounded investigators and experts who work in a regulatory system designed to prevent precisely such equipment from falling into the wrong hands." According to sources, Lockheed Martin sent the missile to Europe for a NATO training exercise — and on its return, it ended up on a plane to Havana, where it was impounded. A US government official familiar with the situation calls it a "dummy" missile that lacks a warhead or guidance system. Originally designed to be launched from helicopters, Hellfire missiles have also been used to arm drone aircraft in recent years — one was credited with killing "Jihadi John" in a US operation. Since the missile arrived in Cuba in 2014, U.S. requests for its return have gone unheeded.
No warhead. No guidance system. So basically we shipped them a big paperweight.
Then we'll fire it in the direction of some US spy plane.
Although I have a sudden desire to play Space Quest. This is the tree where you found the lute.
ZERO. For everything else, there's Cuban Express Card...
This confounds the very experts who will look like incompetent nincompoops when they say "our investigation revealed that your system is broken and we screwed this up." So, rather than say that, they say "this is so mysterious, we can't figure out how this happened, something really extreme must have gone on."
and we lifted the embargo on these jokers? Obama plz.
"Says 'Hell' does it not? ship it to Cuba."
and so it goes
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I have had mail addressed to Japan ended up in Iran (and then returned after three months.)
How the USPS manages to route a piece of mail addressed to Japan to Iran, is just as mysterious.
"Since the missile arrived in Cuba in 2014, U.S. requests for its return have gone unheeded."
But boy do they giggle like school girls every time the next request comes in.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Missile shipped to wrong country almost 2 years ago and slashdot crowd just got wind of it. Definitely late breaking news.
ROFLMAO
Seriously.. I ordered an open source Smoothieboard (for a 3D printer) from the US to Canada. It left Idaho, went to Los Angels and then went to Tokyo where it sat for two weeks.
https://tools.usps.com/go/Trac...
Doesn't surprise me anymore when shit ends up going to the wrong place.
It's still a mystery as to how the missile reached Cuba
On a plane. Says so in the summary.
Why it went to Cuba is the mystery.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
They want war.
Talk about overkill. A hellfire has a 20 lb high explosive warhead that can take out a main battle tank. They must have wanted Jihadi John killed really really dead.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, a marine is un-crating a gift basket with a letter expressing "joy and cooperation in our future". Nothing unusual with supply. Moves on to next crate without thinking about it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
That's why everyone wants him to go away
What use would it have in an exercise?
Oh we're just going to fire it and see were it goes?
Now now...be careful....saying something against Hussein Obama could get you banished from /. ;)
They lost a run-of-the-mill cold-war-era missile!?!? ZOMG TEH SECRET ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES!!1uno
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
dammit.
they didn't DROP them on Cuba.
strikes again. surprised they didn't set it off in-transit.
I love how Senator Rubio fired off a public message condemning them for hiding the fact that they misdirected mail to Cuba. I can see the exchange now...
"You've been concealing the fact that you used the wrong zip code on our missile from the American People!" --Sen. Rubio
"And you've been concealing the fact that you're a Moron." --State Department
"Touche."
Show is over.
Everybody is tearing down and packing up; there is equipment and boxes everywhere; everyone wants to get home; no one is paying attention.
Wander by a stack of your competitor's boxes, slap your shipping label on top of theirs; wander off.
A week later you have their box on your loading dock.
Reverse-engineer at your leisure.
When you are done, call them up, tell them one of their boxes got misdirected, and where would they like it shipped to?
Why does everyone keep shipping missiles to Cuba?
Look for a 1953 Oldsmobile powered by a Hellfire rocket motor on the next episode of Cuban Chrome.
From postal regs
A company sends you a gift in the mail--a ball point pen, a key chain, a tie. But you didn't order it. What do you do? If you are the type of person this company is looking for, you may feel guilty about accepting the item without paying for it. Don't feel guilty! It's yours, and you are under no obligation to pay anything. You, the consumer, may only legally be sent two types of merchandise through the mail without your consent or agreement:
And in these two cases, you can consider the merchandise a gift if you wish. In all other situations, it is illegal to send merchandise to someone, unless that person has previously ordered or requested it. These rules are codified in Title 39, United States Code, Section 3009. That section of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 incorporates these protections for American consumers and makes the mailing of unordered merchandise unfair methods of competition and unfair trade practices under the law.
If you do not wish to pay for unsolicited merchandise or make a donation to a charity sending such an item, you may do one of three things (in each case, by law, you have no obligation to the sender):
Furthermore, it is illegal for a company that sends you unordered merchandise to follow the mailing with a bill or dunning communication.
but hey, point well taken. unless you like dissenting with authority, and having stuff. in which case, Cuba is still a notch below, say, Langdon ND in the depths of winter. 50 below does keep much of the riff-raff out.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
It sounds to me like the missile was to be shipped to an address in Florida, but it was placed on an Air France airplane that had an intermediate stop in Cuba.
Cuban customs found the missile and impounded it.
Is that a little closer to what happened?
send the fucker back. done.