MANPADS

MANPADS or Man-portable air-defense system is the name used to refer to either the U.S. built TOW and Stinger series of shoulder fired missile, or the Soviet-era and modern Russian built SAM surface-to-air shoulder fired missile. All are capable of shooting down commercial and military aircraft with a heat seeking missiles.

Many MANPADS manufactured during the Cold War have an extremely long shelf-life of decades, and are fully operational given proper storage conditions.

During the effort by rebels to oust the United States' War on Terror ally,[1] Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, more than 20,000 Soviet-constructed MANPADS went unaccounted for and fell into the hands of radical Islamic terrorist groups, and remain unaccounted for.[2] Amb. Christopher Stevens was put in charge of the covert operation to locate and buy back unaccounted MANPADS at the time of the Benghazi massacre.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-usa-order-idustre72t6h220110331
2. ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/nightmare-libya-20000-surface-air-missiles-missing/story?id=14610199#.UZ4nrYdwrng Libyan missiles on the loose, By David Ignatius, Washington Post Opinion writer, May 8, 2012 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/libyan-missiles-on-the-loose/2012/05/08/gIQA1FCUBU_story.html?utm_term=.a091217ed1fd https://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/48427738 Morrissey, Ed (May 8, 2014). Did Hillary refuse to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization? Hot Air website.