Is Germany selling Patriot missiles to China?

[Eki]

News Headlines (http://www.cnbc.com/id/45752181)


HELSINKI - Finnish police are investigating a ship for carrying missiles and explosive materials without permission while stopping in Finland en route from Germany to China.

Authorities searched cargo ship Thor Liberty in Kotka, southern Finland, and found 69 Patriot missiles with explosives and 150 tonnes of explosive material called nitroguanidine, the National Bureau of Investigation said.

The ship was sailing under an Isle of Man flag and had stopped to load cables on board. Finnish media earlier said the ship was also scheduled to stop in South Korea, but police did not confirm that.

A Finnish safety official said the boat had initially been stopped because the nitroguanidine did not appear to be stowed properly.

The ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, was not immediately available for comment.

[janneppi]

New year's eve is soon, and they were marked as fireworks in the shipping papers... :)

[donKey jote]

Patriot missiles? Didn't know they were German :confused:

[Jag_Warrior]

Patriot missiles? Didn't know they were German :confused:

It could be how we're paying the interest on all those bonds the Chinese have bought from us. Hey, if you don't have cash, you have to barter. :blackeye:

[donKey jote]

Not quite sure why China would want "our" missiles anyway... it's not like they don't already have any :s

[Mark]

Patriots don't work anyway. Unless things have changed since the Gulf War.

[BDunnell]

Patriot missiles? Didn't know they were German :confused:

How could they be called Patriots and be anything other than AMERICAN? No other country has the RIGHT to give its missiles such a name.

[Eki]

Patriot missiles? Didn't know they were German :confused:
They aren't, but Luftwaffe has them:

MIM-104 Patriot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-104_Patriot#Operators)

I my self have bought some German Bundeswehr surplus too, like boots and Goretex rain gear. Never seen any missiles on sale though.

[Bob Riebe]

Maybe it is a really big version of Fast and Furious.

[nigelred5]

Raytheon Begins SAM-X/Patriot Missile Work in South Korea (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Raytheon-Begins-SAM-XPatriot-Missile-Work-in-South-Korea-04772/)

Wild ass guess, Germany is selling second hand missles to SK to bolster their stash in light of the recent change in leadership. Noone knows where the son stands in NK.

[anthonyvop]

Patriots don't work anyway. Unless things have changed since the Gulf War.

HUH?

[airshifter]

Raytheon Begins SAM-X/Patriot Missile Work in South Korea (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Raytheon-Begins-SAM-XPatriot-Missile-Work-in-South-Korea-04772/)

Wild ass guess, Germany is selling second hand missles to SK to bolster their stash in light of the recent change in leadership. Noone knows where the son stands in NK.

I agree with this SWAG. South Korea has already purchased Patriot missles from Germany after North Korea did their ballistic missle tests several years back. With the change in leadership they are probably more than happy to get their hands on some more of them.

[Mark]

HUH?

When they were deployed in the gulf war they failed to hit a single target, but were very useful from a propaganda point of view.

[Eki]

BBC News - Finland 'finds Patriot missiles' on China-bound ship (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16292244)


Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks".

:laugh: The labels weren't lying.

[Malbec]

Patriots don't work anyway. Unless things have changed since the Gulf War.

Yes they have, IIRC there have been several updates in the intervening two decades both to the missiles themselves and to the fire control systems especially as Patriot is supposed to be part of the theatre missile defence system being developed. That said, it could be the Germans haven't updated theirs.

[Malbec]

Raytheon Begins SAM-X/Patriot Missile Work in South Korea (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Raytheon-Begins-SAM-XPatriot-Missile-Work-in-South-Korea-04772/)

Wild ass guess, Germany is selling second hand missles to SK to bolster their stash in light of the recent change in leadership. Noone knows where the son stands in NK.

The simplest explanations are usually the best, I think yours is probably the right one.

[Eki]

OK. It seems the missiles might be legal. A Finnish dock worker had translated the English word "rockets" into a Finnish word meaning "fireworks". But there's still a question, why a transit permission through Finland was not asked.

[Rollo]

When they were deployed in the gulf war they failed to hit a single target, but were very useful from a propaganda point of view.

Optical Evidence Indicating Patriot High Miss Rates During the Gulf War (http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992_h/h920407p.htm)
Today I would like to describe the results of recent technical studies I have performed using unclassified videotapes of Patriots attempting to intercept Scud warheads. The results of these studies are disturbing. They suggest that Patriot's intercept rate during the Gulf War was very low. The evidence from these preliminary studies indicate that Patriot's intercept rate could be much lower than 10 percent, possibly even zero. That such a conclusion can be reached from press video, which is a very crude tool by scientific standards, is disturbing. One would not anticipate that press video would have adequate space or time resolution to reach such a conclusion. However, as I will show you during the course of my presentation, most of the Patriot miss distances are so large that even press video is able to provide unambiguous evidence of misses.

[airshifter]

And how many SCUD missles impacted Israel as opposed to how many were fired upon it?

[markabilly]

Raytheon Begins SAM-X/Patriot Missile Work in South Korea (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Raytheon-Begins-SAM-XPatriot-Missile-Work-in-South-Korea-04772/)

Wild ass guess, Germany is selling second hand missles to SK to bolster their stash in light of the recent change in leadership. Noone knows where the son stands in NK.


I would think that used missiles are probably pretty cheap stuff.....

[donKey jote]

your used missis certainly is ! :andrea: :arrows: :bandit:


(Happy new year long time no see :wave: )

[markabilly]

your used missis certainly is ! :andrea: :arrows: :bandit:


(Happy new year long time no see :wave: )

not anymore..your momma decided to be one of those dollar slot machines