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.

Comments

Probably USPS' fault..

[GrBear]

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.

Why, not how

[wonkey_monkey]

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.

Re:Why, not how

[aix tom]

Wall Street Journal seems to know. Sub-Sub-Sub-Contractor mix-up it seems.

The people familiar with the case said the missile was sent to Spain and used in the military exercise. But for reasons that are still unclear, after it was packed up, it began a roundabout trip through Europe, was loaded onto a truck and eventually sent to Germany.

The missile was packaged in Rota, Spain, a U.S. official said, where it was put into the truck belonging to another freight-shipping firm, known by officials who track such cargo as a “freight forwarder.” That trucking company released the missile to yet another shipping firm that was supposed to put the missile on a flight originating in Madrid. That flight was headed to Frankfurt, Germany, before it was to be placed on another flight bound for Florida.

At some point, officials loading the first flight realized the missile it expected to be loading onto the aircraft wasn’t among the cargo, the government official said. After tracing the cargo, officials realized that the missile had been loaded onto a truck operated by Air France, which took the missile to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. There, it was loaded onto a “mixed pallet” of cargo and placed on an Air France flight. By the time the freight-forwarding firm in Madrid tracked down the missile, it was on the Air France flight, headed to Havana.

Attempts to reach Air France were unsuccessful.

Re:School girls

[Solandri]

Historically, unless the countries are at war, these things are returned. When Cuban defectors flew MiGs to the U.S., the planes were returned. Completely disassembled and shipped back in crates, but they were returned. Same thing with the U.S. EP-3E which landed on Hainan Island. China returned it to the U.S., in crates after they'd completely taken it apart, but they returned it. The U-2 plane which the Soviets shot down was also returned, minus the film and a few pieces of the plane which are still on display in a Moscow museum.

If Cuba won't return the missile, that puts them in the company of Iran, who flaunted International law and precedent by not returning the U.S. spy drone which landed in their country, and North Korea, which still holds the USS Pueblo.

Old trade show trick

[swm]

on its return, it ended up on a plane to Havana

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?

Re:In other words...

[AK Marc]

It's not like he's Bush or Reagan, presidents who did actually sell arms, and lots of them, to actual enemies.