The term “cruise missile” always seems oxymoronic. A cruise is supposed to be leisurely, relaxed, something managed by Capt. Steubing to induce romance, love, exciting and new …
A missle, on the other hand, is always hurrying, always focused, and anything but relaxing or leisurely.
Which is apropos of little but this report in the Guardian about British troops finding Russian-made cruise missiles in a bunker complex outside Basra.
But the most disturbing find was two Russian-made Harith cruise missiles, each six metres (20ft) long, and nine warheads hidden in two enormous, reinforced-concrete bunkers.
Another missile, as yet unidentified, was found still in its crate.
The scale and possible implications of the weapons find took British forces by surprise and raised fresh questions about the extent of the Iraqi war machine and the ability of weapons inspectors to cope with the task of scouring such a vast country for prohibited ordnance.
The discovery of the missiles – which were stamped with the year 2002 – came as British troops from the Black Watch regiment fought to secure the area around Iraqi’s second city, Basra, in preparation for the capture of the city.
Unless these are the shortest-range cruise missiles on record, it’s another sign of Stuff Inspectors Didn’t Find — even though it was in a large military complex outside of the second largest city in Iraq.
These things were stamped with the year 2002? Hmmm. Any comments from the Russians on that?
Of course, some boxes of rocket-propelled grenades from a British firm were also found there (although one suspects that cruise missiles are monitored more closely by their manufacturing country than RPGs).
An amusing aspect of the story is that the RPGs were manufactured by Wallop (“No Need to Say What Our Products Pack!”) Industries. I don’t know if it’s more or less amusing that the company is not named for its product line, but for its home in Middle Wallop, Hampshire.
Less amusing: “One unit from the Black Watch came under attack from rocket-propelled grenades four times yesterday morning, but there were no casualties.” It would be quite unamusing, I’m sure, to the folks of Hampshire if some of their RPGs were being fired at their own troops …
(via Volokh)