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February 4, 2005
Video of C-130 Downing a Fake, say Analysts
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesThe kidnapping of a "toy soldier" and this bogus shoot-down of a C-130 with a missile that just wouldn't do the job unless it was shot from inside the aircraft - what kind of whackos are we dealing with here? Tell me we aren't making some headway in the war on terror!
A video purportedly showing the moment a British military airplane was
shot down by Iraqi insurgents is almost certainly bogus, say defense
specialists who studied the footage.
[...]
Defence experts say the wreckage seen in the video shown is consistent
with that of a Hercules C-130, but dismiss the rest of the video as a
crude propaganda attempt.
"I think the video is bogus," says Peter Felstead, editor of Jane's Defense Weekly. "The missile footage has just been grafted onto the front. And it looks like a surface-to-surface missile to me."
Jim O'Halloran, editor of Jane's Land-Based Air Defence, agrees. He says the pointed shape of the missile and the way it launched suggests it was a surface-to-surface Multiple Launch Rocket System missile, possibly the Katyusha type used by the Israeli army. He adds that such a weapon would not be effective against an airborne target. "What they're showing did not kill a C-130," O'Halloran told New Scientist.
But some of the wreckage footage itself may also be suspect, as it is shot in daylight. The airplane crashed at 1635 local time, leaving just an hour before sunset for someone to reach the wreckage and start recording. The images could not have been captured the following morning, as British forces had arrived at the site by this time.
Hat tip - The Command Post
Source: New Scientist
Posted by Hyscience at February 4, 2005 11:12 AM
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