Two Live Surface-to-air Missiles Discovered By Local Fisherman.

[britmaveric]

Two live Surface-to-air missiles discovered by local fisherman.

Police Lieutenant Prajack from Banglamung Police Station was called to the Banglamung sub-district administration building in Lom Pok after a 25 year old fisherman had made an interesting discovery which required the assistance of the Police.

The man was recovering his nets from the sea when he noticed two large missile shaped objects. They were in fact, two Fuze Time M84 Surface-to-air missiles. The Police Lieutenant alerted the Royal Thai Navy who will now make a sweep of the area to ensure that no further missiles are present under the sea and for now Police are continuing their investigations and the two missiles have been safely destroyed by a Royal Navy bomb disposal unit who confirmed that the two missiles were live.

Police are also exploring the theory that the missiles may have been placed in the water for use at a later date.

-Pattaya City News

Saturday 1st April 2006

[MisterFingers]

Hmm..I wonder if this has to do with a new airport near Pattaya.

And how about the suspicion of a possible terrorist threat in or near Pattaya.

That fisherman may have saved many people taking off in a plane(s).

[Kerryd]

###### ! I was saving those for Songkran !

I got a deal on them from a little old lady that has a vending cart on soi 17. She thought they were just big fireworks.

I thought about using them on APRIL FOOLS, but figured most people wouldn't even notice

(side note: storing missiles in water is a bad thing, salt water is even worse as it is more corrosive. Most likey these were dumped by someone to avoid being caught with them. These things tend to be very expensive, very complex and very sensitive to things like humidity. Dumping them in the ocean is pretty much gauranteed to ruin them. I'm surprised that it doesn't appear from the story that the Thai Navy made any attempt to identify where those missiles may have come from. They are pretty easy to trace).

[Rimmer]

Two live Surface-to-air missiles discovered by local fisherman.

SNIP

Police are also exploring the theory that the missiles may have been placed in the water for use at a later date.

-Pattaya City News

Saturday 1st April 2006

That's quite bizzar why would anybody think you can "store" a live missile round in a saltwater environment? Would have to have all kinds of protective coverings on it first.

What is a Fuze Time M84 Surface-to-air missile? From the description it must have a proximity fuse but I can't find that type number on any of my search engines.

[opothai]

that would be an interesting story to follow, but i doubt very much we'll be hearing much more on this topic.

a bit to scary for the tourist ?

[pepsi666]

###### ! I was saving those for Songkran !

I got a deal on them from a little old lady that has a vending cart on soi 17. She thought they were just big fireworks.

I thought about using them on APRIL FOOLS, but figured most people wouldn't even notice

The blue touch paper would have been too soggy to light and where are you going to find a bottle big enough to fire them from ?

Rather than store them in the sea, they should have been in the box, so they wouldnt get damp

Edited April 4, 2006 by pepsi666

[Kerryd]

###### ! I was saving those for Songkran !

I got a deal on them from a little old lady that has a vending cart on soi 17. She thought they were just big fireworks.

I thought about using them on APRIL FOOLS, but figured most people wouldn't even notice

The blue touch paper would have been too soggy to light and where are you going to find a bottle big enough to fire them from ?

Rather than store them in the sea, they should have been in the box, so they wouldnt get damp

Yeah I know

I was going to let them go out on the water for maximum effect. Couldn't find the little string to light them off. Too lazy to haul them all the way home again, so I dropped them over the side. Figured I'd get a couple of strong lads to go back and pick them up for me, but, well, you know......

If that little old lady gets any more in stock, I'll keep them stored in the neighbours building, nice and dry !

Edited April 4, 2006 by Kerryd

[britmaveric]

Somehow I thought the missles would be bigger....

[Pattaya_Fox]

Somehow I thought the missles would be bigger....

The abandoned rocket launcher found in Jomtien a couple of months ago could be the answer and these were dumped in the sea.

[teletiger]

fuzo class means detonation can be delayed until after impact and penetration.

more useless trivia.

regards

[teletiger]

Sounds like a cure for premature ejaculation.

regards

[Rimmer]

Surface to air missile yeh right! Looks like a standard mortor bomb to me with fins like that.

[britmaveric]

Actually they look like rockets fired from mortars?

[Kerryd]

Somehow I thought the missles would be bigger....

What a joke !!!!

Those aren't surface-to-air missiles ! They are mortar rounds. Very old mortar rounds, 81 or 82mm.

Based on my experience, I'd say that many years ago, these were fired during a military training exercise, and failed to detonate after hitting the water.

These are fired against surface targets, not air targets.

I've participated in range clean-ups, and we always find unexploded mortar and rocket rounds. Sometimes they fail to explode because they are duds. Sometimes they just don't land quite right (i.e. they hit a tree on the way down and land on their sides instead of their nose).

Hard to believe a fisherman could have picked these up in his nets, unless he was scouring the ocean floor.

Sheesh. Who ever wrote the original article should find a new job.

[pepsi666]

Somehow I thought the missles would be bigger....

What a joke !!!!

Those aren't surface-to-air missiles ! They are mortar rounds. Very old mortar rounds, 81 or 82mm.

Based on my experience, I'd say that many years ago, these were fired during a military training exercise, and failed to detonate after hitting the water.

These are fired against surface targets, not air targets.

I've participated in range clean-ups, and we always find unexploded mortar and rocket rounds. Sometimes they fail to explode because they are duds. Sometimes they just don't land quite right (i.e. they hit a tree on the way down and land on their sides instead of their nose).

Hard to believe a fisherman could have picked these up in his nets, unless he was scouring the ocean floor.

Sheesh. Who ever wrote the original article should find a new job.

Bog standard 82mm morter rounds, (H.E) if they were phospurus they would be flat at the end, as was said they just failed to explode, they COULD be used to hit a helicopter, but the pilot would have to be very low and stupid and the mortar man VERY lucky

If they were fired into the water that would explain why they never went off (not a hard target)

Only ways the fisherman could have got them was scouring the seabed or he found them on a beach somewhere (maybe he thought he could sell them for scrap, they weigh about 3-4 pounds each)

They may even be training rounds (no expolsive) just propellant, and they use them over and over again

A SAM (Surface to Air Missile, A Stinger) is about 4 feet long, and can be handheld or fired from a launcher (depending on range of airdraft)

A Stinger (infa red, it seeks a heat source, weight about 30 pounds) has a range of 3-5 kilometes , altitude 6 kms anything over that it just runs out of 'go juice' and they self detonate if a target is not found, cant really see how these could be mixed up with these, different shape, size and weight

Edited April 7, 2006 by pepsi666

[edd]

It’s better to be blasted into eternity by a guided missile than into maternity by a guided muscle.

Ref. Blaster Bates.

[Rimmer]

Don't know what size the Thai military use but I think I am right in saying that the American standard round in V'nam was 81mm but the North Vietnamese used an 82mm tube so that US black market rounds would fit their tubes.

pepsi666 would know the detail I am sure.

[pepsi666]

Don't know what size the Thai military use but I think I am right in saying that the American standard round in V'nam was 81mm but the North Vietnamese used an 82mm tube so that US black market rounds would fit their tubes.

pepsi666 would know the detail I am sure.

You could be right there, I forgot that Thailand get their hardware from the US, still I think we all agree these are mortar rounds

[Kerryd]

Don't know what size the Thai military use but I think I am right in saying that the American standard round in V'nam was 81mm but the North Vietnamese used an 82mm tube so that US black market rounds would fit their tubes.

pepsi666 would know the detail I am sure.

You could be right there, I forgot that Thailand get their hardware from the US, still I think we all agree these are mortar rounds

Definitely mortar rounds. Quite old judging by the corrosion.

(shortly after WWII, the Chinese started making most of their weapons 1mm larger than the Americans. The idea being that the Americans wouldn't be able to use captured Chinese ammo, but the Chinese could use captured American ammo. Same for the Vietnamese I guess).

How in the hel_l these were ever initially reported as "surface-to-air" missiles is beyond me. I thought they had found some Stingers or SAM-7's. Maybe even a couple of anti-air missiles from a ship, like the Sea Sparrow or SeaWolf.

[Rimmer]

Don't know what size the Thai military use but I think I am right in saying that the American standard round in V'nam was 81mm but the North Vietnamese used an 82mm tube so that US black market rounds would fit their tubes.

pepsi666 would know the detail I am sure.

You could be right there, I forgot that Thailand get their hardware from the US, still I think we all agree these are mortar rounds

Definitely mortar rounds. Quite old judging by the corrosion.

(shortly after WWII, the Chinese started making most of their weapons 1mm larger than the Americans. The idea being that the Americans wouldn't be able to use captured Chinese ammo, but the Chinese could use captured American ammo. Same for the Vietnamese I guess).

How in the hel_l these were ever initially reported as "surface-to-air" missiles is beyond me. I thought they had found some Stingers or SAM-7's. Maybe even a couple of anti-air missiles from a ship, like the Sea Sparrow or SeaWolf.

Ah Ha so that's the origin of the larger tubes, very interesting. Thanks for that.

Yes how disappointing I would have at least expected the odd Rapier or maybe a Bloodhound or

two ?

[Kerryd]

Ah Ha so that's the origin of the larger tubes, very interesting. Thanks for that.

Yes how disappointing I would have at least expected the odd Rapier or maybe a Bloodhound or

two ?

Most of the "fancy" stuff is far too expensive for the average terrorist, unless they are government funded (which is also just about the only way they can get their hands on that level of hardware).

(trivia: The M-72 Anti-tank rocket was developed in the early 60's. The weapon was actually a 66mm rocket with a HEAT warhead. After firing, the disposable assembly (consisting of an aluminium inner and fibreglass outer tube) was usually thrown away.

The Viet-Cong found that those tubes made great "field expedient" mortar tubes. Insert a small piece of wood, with a small nail in the center, into the bottom of the tube, then drop in a 60mm mortar round. Not very accurate, and the tubes didn't last long, but hey, they were light, and they were free !)

Wouldn't work with the rounds that fisherman found though.

[kippers]

Pattaya City News story with their usual high standard of accurate reporting again....................that guy Howard Miller really is a wally