Good afternoon, I’m still reporting on the coup. 75 days and counting until election day 2020.
Perhaps the place where President Trump is the most vulnerable is when he is on Air Force One.
It is rumored that the big 747 has special weapons capable of defending itself against air-to-air attacks, however, one slip-up in this defense system could be catastrophic.
On top of that, President Trump’s travel schedule in the hectic final days of the campaign will be heavily dependent on travel by Air Force One. Plans are frequently changed at the last minute changes could cause short-cuts of vital security protocols, especially if ordered by the boss.
That’s why this story that appeared yesterday in the highly reliable “Popular Mechanics” magazine is particularly troubling.
Amazon Air - owned by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos - was caught importing a live, air-to-air guided missile, a French-made Matra Super 530D into the big regional airport in Lakeland, Florida, which is halfway between Tampa and Orlando.
The bust went down on Friday, August 12, however it garnered zero media attention until the Military Times broke the story on Tuesday, followed by Popular Mechanics yesterday.
According to the Military Time report, Air Force 1st Lt. Brandon Hanner was quoted as saying:
“Our EOD team went out and secured the missile. It was live, but unarmed.”
Hanner said he was told the missile was:
“…like having a gun with bullet in chamber, but on safety. Someone would have to arm the missile to fire it.”
However, the Draken International team which first assessed the situation saw markings on the missile that indicated that it was both live and armed. According to Draken officials:
“Adhering to the explosive safety rule of exposing the minimum amount of people for the minimum amount of time to a potential explosive hazard, we made the decision to evacuate the facility, inform our surrounding tenants and contact the appropriate authorities as soon as possible.”
This is the second time in two years that the military has confiscated a Super Matra 530 from civilians.
In 2019, Italian police seized another Matra Super 530D from a criminal gang, as seen in this photo. According to The Aviationist, this container carried the same red and yellow bands that the Draken weapon displayed. The red band on the protective canister is a universal symbol that there is an explosive warhead on the missile inside. The yellow band indicates a live rocket motor. In other words, this surface-to-air missile is ready to be slapped onto a Mirage fighter as is.
According to the Military Times report:
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One of Draken’s most important military assets is the French Mirage F1, like these seen in front of Draken’s sprawling warehouse at their Linder Airport facility.
Interestingly, the Matra Super 530D missile was made to be carried aboard the Mirage. Although some experts say that this is outdated technology, the 12.5-foot long Super 530D is still very lethal, especially if it could be fired from relatively close range at its intended target – and especially if that target was going relatively slowly – as when it is on final approach to landing.
Why? Because this missile is so fast, has such a long range, and carries such a large payload.
According to Wikipedia, the Matra Super 530D has a range of 25 miles. It weighs in at 595 pounds and can carry its 66-pound high-explosive, fragmentation warhead at just under Mach 5 – about 3700 miles per hour – or about one mile per second. Air Force One flies at just under Mach 1 – about 740 miles per hour, but on approach, would be a sitting duck flying at around 250 miles per hour.
It’s radar guidance can seek and destroy targets as high as 80,000 feet or as low as 200 feet.
The Matra Super 530 is still a front-line weapon used by France, Egypt, India, Qatar and other nations.
Orlando’s MCO international airport – is just 60 miles away. In this scenario – Air Force One is on final approach to MCO – the Mirage could take off from Linder in Lakeland, cut in the afterburners, and be within firing range within 3 minutes. Air Force One, setting up for a landing at 250 miles per hour, would be a sitting duck.
Even if it could get back up to top speed, it couldn’t outrun the Mirage, and once the Mirage fired its Matra Super 530D, there would be less than 30 seconds before impact – with horrific results.
Now we are not saying that anyone at Draken was involved in such a plot. The missile could have been accidentally included in with a shipment sent to Draken. We are just trying to make the public aware that such a scenario would be very difficult to stop once that Mirage jet took off armed with its Matra Super 530D. Too much speed, too little time, too much confusion for the defenders of freedom.
Now perhaps Amazon Air has a perfectly good explanation for why it shipped a live missile on a non-military commercial cargo flight, when the general public is grilled about a single lithium ba
