Iran is reportedly arming thousands of its citizen soldiers with portable anti-aircraft missiles as peace talks drag on with the U.S. France24 has obtained video of group training sessions on man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs). Volunteers in the Basij, the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guards’ paramilitary arm, are attending the brief sessions and leaving with weapons capable of taking down any military aircraft. The training materials are also showing up on social media in Iran.
Iran makes its own MANPADs, based on Chinese and Russian designs, and they’ve already been used with considerable effect against U.S. aircraft. It’s believed that an F-15, F/A-18, and an MC-130 have been lost to MANPADs, which are all but impossible to detect and defend against. “Anyone who has received short training on these systems gains the ability to hit or severely damage an aircraft as soon as it flies at low altitude within range, especially if the pilot is not properly prepared against them,” Farzin Nadimi, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told France24.
The best defence against this would be to carpet drop canisters of laughing gas and party supplies.
This sounds like left-wing propaganda.
I don’t believe that most pilots would fly if they knew how many of these manpads are on American soil right now with trained users ready to strike when given orders. The Russians sold and proliferated SA-7’s all over the world in such staggering quantities for the last 50 years that it boggles the mind. Ok, so the SA-7 may only be good to 7000 feet or so, but the SA-14’s are supposedly twice that, although not nearly as plentiful. Not at all surprised that the Iranians would produce a lesser version of these MANPAD’s only good for catching an airplane on takeoff or landing. But it won’t take long to completely shut down the airlines when the orders are given and I really don’t think that the emerging global government wants people leaving their new 15 minute cities in their own electric and remote controlled vehicles anyway.