A very weird spin-off for this topic came into my atention last week.
Apparently some Chilean and Peruvian military enthusiasts forums (for those who don´t know, there is a real itch between those two countries) have been cranking up the paranoia syrene, pointing out that “Argentina has ballistic missiles pointed at Chile”…..LOL LOL LOL

The funny part to this story, is that (according to a “reputable non- accredited independant new agency“) argie Defense Ministress Ms. Nilda Garré was called over the “red phone” by her chilean pair and asked for a credible explanation for the alledged “missiles”. Ms. Garré, a former ´70´s left guerrilla leader, who has an axe to grind against everybody who wears a uniform, promptly put several army generlas and navy admirals under investigation for “unauthorized missile pointing” at a friendly country (apparently Ms. Garré doesn´t know that the country for which she IS THE DEFENSE MINISTRESS doens´t have any ballisitc missiles). Always according to this reputable non-accreditted source, the Ministress sent a dude down South with a GPS and a digital camera to make sure the evil right-wing generals were not trying to trick her into believing that there are only oil drilling cranes there.

Link in spanish here : http://www.totalnews.com.ar/detalle_noticia_arch.asp?cod_noticia=20310&fecha=20070621

21/06/2007 GARRE SOLO HACE INTELIGENCIA DE VIDEOGAMES

Nilda Garré recibió una comunicación por el “teléfono rojo”, el sistema que se activa para intercambiar datos sensibles entre ministerios, de su par trasandino José Goñi. Los chilenos creyeron ver el fantasma del Condor II, aquel vector estratégico desarrollado durante la gestión de Raúl Alfonsín,en suelo argentino, más precisamente a 50 kilómetros de Río Gallegos, la ciudadela del presidente Kirchner. Sucedió a principios de junio y se mantuvo en silencio por esas cuestiones de la disciplina del secreto que impone la actividad de inteligencia. Sin embargo el tema tratado fue -para calificarlo suavemente- un dislate de esos que pasan a la historia del anecdotario cómico del espionaje.

Funny indeed, or should I be wheeping…well, Ms. Garre said, when questioned about a strange FAL spares export to the US at ludricous prices that her ministry authorized, that she does not know “what a FAL is“.

King Jester

You’ll find it here. Looks like a large target drone on launcher.

51°58’03.41″S 69°11’57.61″W

Well, sorry to disapoint you all guys, no secret “Scud-x” launcher here. Its oil drilling equippment, the whole area is a huge oil field, clustered with towers, pumps, cranes, worker camps and colector pipes. Just look at the size of the “object”, its 15 to 20 meters long (you can compare the size to a standart shipping container, there are several on nearby camps).

I agree it can certainly fool anybody (including me) by the odd shape, winged-like appearence, but no, just drilling equippment.

King Jester

PS: Wasn´t it Saddam who secretly tried to centrifuge uranium with oil drilling pipes? I´m pretty sure Colin Powel showed pictures just like this one on the UN assembly couple of years ago… :rolleyes:

Sorry for the basic question but can somebody tell me want type of missiles this is? Thanks

Hi Nonpilot, it would help if you give us the exact coordinates to the picture, and the height at which you got the screenshot. I´m no Google Earth expert, but that thing must be darn big to show that much detail on Google Earth (i.e., an Exocet or Harpoon would be hardly recognizable given the resolution of image Google has).

So, where exactly is that thing? :confused:

King Jester

Hi,

I think this one is pretty good:

http://www.schnellboot.net/laender2.html

Cool, many thanks!

King Jester

I would have bet the Morane Saulnier MS 760 was the first…but it was beaten by four years by the Avmpire, posted by fighting-irish.

Thank you bartoli (hereever you are) for the picture.

On a side note, the argie FAA will finally phase out the MS 760, after its 40th anniversary in service. Nobody seems to know what is going to replece it, as there are not enough IA-63 Pamapas in service to cover the required flying hours for pilot qualification. Guess ist more of the same: bleed the FAA till its dry…

King Jester

Possibly – I refer to the irregular shadow/mark/logo just above the cheat line and directly below the forward part of the cockpit glass, which looks rather like the little stylised Falkland Islands map sported by Argentine units/planes that considered they’d taken an active part in the conflict.
hps

Afetr the war all participant (surviving) aircraft did indeed sport the small logo.

Buty here I think its the shape and shadow of the venturi, as seen here in this shot of a much newer Learjet bizzjet.

King Jester

I would like to see some pixs of the impressed Lears if anyone has them.

Chris, here are some:

This is certainly not a Learjet, but an HS-125 impressed into service.

The one on the background is a FAA military executive transport (prolly T-23 or T-24), but the wing on the foreground is certainly a civilian plane.

King Jester

PS: As for the subject of the topic, as already said, not a chance a Learjet could have been modifed into an Exocet platform in time. On the other hand, given enough time, may be….argie technicians showed quite a bit of ingenouty while adapting “stuff” such as bomb racks and gunner sight into C-130´s, improvized chaff dispensers on A-4s and Camberras, and finally by putting together the ITB (lorry portable double MM-38 Exocet launcher which damaged HMS Glamorgan) with Exocet containers from a destroyer, a Rasit army radar, a 1938 Siemens searchlight 400 V CC generator and a hand held Texas Instruments TI-51 calculator.
Also an army Ltnt. mounted two Pucara rocket pods on the roof of an agricultural tractor during the battle for Goose Green.
And then of course the culinary genius of the ground grunts, who managed to cook, roast, stew, flam, boil, and/or fry indigenous mouton and lamb with just the basic mess kits.