Live French Air to Air missile found at Florida airport.

[Bum]

LAKELAND, Fla. — Lakeland Linder Airport has been given the "all clear" after a missile with potential explosives on it was found Friday in a shipment from Draken International, according to officials.
According to Gene Conrad, director of Lakeland Linder Airport, the unarmed missile was found on an incoming shipment around 2 p.m. Friday.
The Lakeland Fire Department, ATF and Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from MacDill responded to investigate. The airport has since lifted evacuations and given the "all clear."

Draken International issued the following statement regarding the incident:

"Draken International, in the process of evaluating arriving shipments discovered something questionable and potentially explosive. Adhering to the explosive safety rule of exposing the minimum amount of people for the minimum amount of time to a potential explosive hazard the decision was made to evacuate the facility and its surrounding neighbors and contact the appropriate authorities. Draken takes its roll in the community seriously and always wants to ensure it performs safe and reliable operations."

A spokesperson for Amazon Air provided the following statement when asked if the issue impacted the company's operations, which also occur at the airport:

"The missile has been safely removed from the premises. There is no threat to our associates and Amazon Air operations have not been disrupted."

While the missile was live, it was not armed ; Draken International is a private military contractor that supplies pilots and fighter aircraft to be used as "aggressor forces" to the US and Allied nations.

Which still begs the question, why does a PMC have access to a live weapon like that, and how did it end up in a civilian airport?

For those wondering, the missile in question is a French made Super 530



Super 530 - Wikipedia



*edit....no idea how I attached the Javelin missile pic.

 

[Fledermaus]

LAKELAND, Fla. — Lakeland Linder Airport has been given the "all clear" after a missile with potential explosives on it was found Friday in a shipment from Draken International, according to officials.
According to Gene Conrad, director of Lakeland Linder Airport, the unarmed missile was found on an incoming shipment around 2 p.m. Friday.
The Lakeland Fire Department, ATF and Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from MacDill responded to investigate. The airport has since lifted evacuations and given the "all clear."

Draken International issued the following statement regarding the incident:

"Draken International, in the process of evaluating arriving shipments discovered something questionable and potentially explosive. Adhering to the explosive safety rule of exposing the minimum amount of people for the minimum amount of time to a potential explosive hazard the decision was made to evacuate the facility and its surrounding neighbors and contact the appropriate authorities. Draken takes its roll in the community seriously and always wants to ensure it performs safe and reliable operations."

A spokesperson for Amazon Air provided the following statement when asked if the issue impacted the company's operations, which also occur at the airport:

"The missile has been safely removed from the premises. There is no threat to our associates and Amazon Air operations have not been disrupted."

While the missile was live, it was not armed ; Draken International is a private military contractor that supplies pilots and fighter aircraft to be used as "aggressor forces" to the US and Allied nations.

Which still begs the question, why does a PMC have access to a live weapon like that, and how did it end up in a civilian airport?

For those wondering, the missile in question is a French made Super 530



Super 530 - Wikipedia

View attachment 67292217

*edit....no idea how I attached the Javelin missile pic.

1980s OA (Aviation Ordnance A school) in Memphis Millington had a set of dummy bombs for training purposes. One of the wasn't a dummy though. EOD had to dispose of one of the real MK 80 series bombs. Good news is that one of those suckers could be dropped from 10,000 feet and not go off.

Even now they are finding things.

Security crews temporarily shut down and evacuated sections of the base and called in bomb squads. This, after service members found seven unaccounted for torpedoes in the Army Reserve Unit area.

Naval Base In Millington Back To Normal After Explosives Led To Alert, Partial Lockdown | localmemphis.com

 

[beerftw]

LAKELAND, Fla. — Lakeland Linder Airport has been given the "all clear" after a missile with potential explosives on it was found Friday in a shipment from Draken International, according to officials.
According to Gene Conrad, director of Lakeland Linder Airport, the unarmed missile was found on an incoming shipment around 2 p.m. Friday.
The Lakeland Fire Department, ATF and Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from MacDill responded to investigate. The airport has since lifted evacuations and given the "all clear."

Draken International issued the following statement regarding the incident:

"Draken International, in the process of evaluating arriving shipments discovered something questionable and potentially explosive. Adhering to the explosive safety rule of exposing the minimum amount of people for the minimum amount of time to a potential explosive hazard the decision was made to evacuate the facility and its surrounding neighbors and contact the appropriate authorities. Draken takes its roll in the community seriously and always wants to ensure it performs safe and reliable operations."

A spokesperson for Amazon Air provided the following statement when asked if the issue impacted the company's operations, which also occur at the airport:

"The missile has been safely removed from the premises. There is no threat to our associates and Amazon Air operations have not been disrupted."

While the missile was live, it was not armed ; Draken International is a private military contractor that supplies pilots and fighter aircraft to be used as "aggressor forces" to the US and Allied nations.

Which still begs the question, why does a PMC have access to a live weapon like that, and how did it end up in a civilian airport?

For those wondering, the missile in question is a French made Super 530



Super 530 - Wikipedia

View attachment 67292217

*edit....no idea how I attached the Javelin missile pic.

Given the date I looked up for the 530 missile introduction, I would guess the missile originated in france and at some point was sold to saddam or some other middle eastern nation then ended up on the arms market.

France actively sells such missiles, and a company that is running legit has no issue aquiring them, my guess would be the pmc was running some shady sales they were not allowed to do legally so they smuggled it likely from somewhere originating in iraq so it could not be directly traced. Though this would raise even more questions about who the buyer was if they were not so straight forward about their transport.