The Air Force Recovered a Live French Missile in Florida
A commercial airport discovered a French-made missile.
Authorities called in the U.S. Air Force and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which transported it to a nearby air force base for safekeeping.
The missile was described as “live,” but authorities are unsure if it has a real explosive warhead. Indications on the casing, however, say it does.
A Florida airport called in the U.S. Air Force last week after discovering a live air-to-air missile. Officials at Lakeland Linder International Airport found the Matra 530 missile in a shipment to a defense contractor that uses the airport to house its fleet of fighter jets. The weapon was transferred to MacDill Air Force Base for disposal.
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Authorities found the live missile in a shipment to Draken International, which specializes in providing pilots and fighter jets to fly against U.S. military pilots and air defense systems in realistic, real-world training. Draken has a fleet of 150 older jets retired from military services around the world, including the U.S., Czech Republic, South Africa, and France.
The Matra Super 530 is an older, obsolete radar-guided missile. Draken flies the French-made Mirage F1M multi-role fighter, which was equipped with the Matra Super 530 during its military service. It’s possible a live 530 was accidentally slipped into a shipment of parts purchased by Draken. Judging from the visible markings, it's not immediately clear there's a live missile inside, although a trained weapons handler might guess as much.
According to Military Times, explosive ordnance disposal techs from the 6th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal at MacDill Air Force Base retrieved the missile. The techs then secured the missile to the back of a flatbed truck and took it to their base for destruction.
“It was live, but unarmed,” an Air Force public affairs officer told the Military Times. The missile was “like having a gun with a bullet in chamber, but on safety," that official elaborated. "Someone would have to arm the missile to fire it.”
This is the second time in two years the military confiscated a wayward Super Matra 530 from civilians. In 2019, Italian police seized another missile from a criminal gang. In an article covering that seizure, The Aviationist wrote a red band on the protective canister is a universal symbol, meaning there's an explosive warhead on the missile inside, while a yellow band indicates a real rocket motor.
Like the Italian missile canister, the Florida canister clearly is painted with both red and yellow bands.
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