Printer-friendly Version

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 8, 2003

SENATORS: MISSING IRAQI SHOULDER-FIRED MISSILES UNDERSCORE NEED TO EQUIP US PLANES WITH ANTI-MISSILE TECHNOLOGY

Hundreds of shoulder-fired missiles missing from Saddam's arsenal could be sold on black market to terrorists, endangering U.S. commercial planes

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today said that the need to outfit the U.S. commercial air fleet with anti-missile technologies has taken on a greater urgency in light of a new report that hundreds of shoulder-fired missiles remain unaccounted for in Iraq.

In letters to the Secretaries of the Homeland Security and Defense Departments, the Senators urged the Administration to accelerate efforts to outfit US planes with anti-missile technologies and to back funding in the emergency appropriations bill to ensure that the 300 aircraft that comprise the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) are outfitted immediately.

Schumer said, “The US government has been getting wake-up calls about the danger of shoulder-fired missiles for way too long but has been dilly-dallying in taking meaningful steps to deal with those threats in a quick and efficient way. There are literally hundreds of these missiles floating around Iraq on the black market and it would take only one to bring down a plane, causing untold damage both in terms of human life and in terms of the economy. The time to act on outfitting our planes is now. We cannot afford to wait.”

Boxer said, “These weapons pose an imminent threat. The bottom line is, we are lucky that despite their attempts, terrorists haven’t succeeded in taking down a U.S. plane. We need to begin the process of outfitting our commercial aircraft with countermeasures, and we should start with the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, which was used to transport U.S. military personnel to dangerous regions at the beginning of the Iraq war.”

The Senators said that recent events have made the need for such protections clear. A flurry of missile attacks against coalition warplanes has led the Red Cross to stop flights into Baghdad, and the United Nations, which had been using civilian aircraft, is now operating military C-130 transports equipped with missile countermeasures. At least nineteen missiles have been launched against coalition aircraft since May, and estimates of how many shoulder-fired missiles still unaccounted for inside Iraq range from 3,700 to 10,000.

Today's New York Times reports that the military has been unable to find hundreds of shoulder-fired missiles that were once part of Saddam's arsenal and that officials may never know exactly how many of the missiles are missing because they lacked records of what was in the arsenal before the war. The military is using rewards and other means to acquire the missiles and reports that 317 of the shoulder-fired missiles have been returned since May 1 and that troops have discovered hundreds more.

The Senators said that without records detailing precisely how many missiles were in the arsenal, there is no foolproof way of knowing for sure whether all of the shoulder-fired missiles had been collected. In addition, they said that the missiles can be sold on the black market for a far higher price than the $500 reward that is being offered by the military for each missile, making it
unlikely that all the missiles will be recovered.

Schumer said, “In a 9/11 world, we can't leave anything to chance. We can't just offer rewards and hope all of these missiles will be recovered. We need to go all the way and take concrete steps to protect our planes from this danger. That means providing the resources that are needed to outfit planes with anti-missile technology. We should start the process by making sure that the planes in the CRAF that might be used to transport our troops have this technology.”

The proposal that Schumer and Boxer want to include in the supplemental appropriations bill would require the DHS to work with the Departments of Defense and Transportation to outfit 300 planes in the CRAF with defenses against shoulder-fired missiles. It is projected that it will cost $2 million per plane for this number of planes, plus some testing and engineering costs.
The Senators' amendment would provide approximately $655 million for this to take place as soon as possible.

The CRAF is comprised of planes that airlines contract out to the government to fly troops and cargo during emergencies or when the military's need for airlift exceeds the capability or capacity of military aircraft. The CRAF has various subdivisions, including one for international long-range passenger planes. The role of these particular aircraft is to augment military C-5s and C-17s during periods of increased airlift needs. As of January 2003, 33 carriers and 927 aircraft were enrolled in the CRAF, and as of July 2003 the number of international long-range passenger planes enrolled in the CRAF stood at 421. The CRAF was activated for the first time in its history on August 17, 1990 when aircraft were called up in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and most recently the CRAF was activated in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

CRAF aircraft often fly to the same locations as military aircraft already protected by defenses against shoulder-fired missiles. By equipping these 300 airliners, the Senators' would provide near-term protection for international flights and for mobilization aircraft. Prioritizing the outfitting of these planes will provide an extra, near-term level of security for military personnel, demonstrate the effectiveness of the missile defenses on commercial aircraft, and provide security to private passengers when the planes return to the commercial fleet.

####