Fears On Us Missiles In Afghanistan

Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday April 5, 1987

By DAVID B. OTTAWAY

WASHINGTON, Sunday: The Reagan Administration is sending seven anti-communist Afghan rebel groups about 600 sophisticated Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, including copies of a more accurate later model, according to sources familiar with the program.

The sudden increase in Stinger deployment to a large number of Afghan rebel groups, and the looser procedures now reportedly governing who receives them, is renewing concern that the weapon will fall into the hands of Iran or possibly Middle East terrorists linked to Tehran.

Senator Dennis DeConcini (Democrat, Arizona) said in an interview last week that he was greatly concerned about a classified report from the General Accounting Office on the safeguards attached to Stingers being sent or sold abroad.

Army Chief of Staff General J. A. Wickham and legislators have expressed concern that Stingers might make their way to the black market and to terrorists who might seek to use the sophisticated weapon, with its 4.8-kilometre range, to shoot down a civilian airliner.

One source said that when the program began late last summer each four-man rebel unit, after a six- to eight-week training course, had been given just one launcher and one missile at a time. Before another missile was issued, the unit had to return and show it still had the launcher.

Now more than one missile was being handed out at a time and the Stinger was sometimes being given to groups that had not had enough training.

Another worrisome problem, he said, was that the Stinger would fall into the hands of pro-Iranian rebel groups which might turn it over to terrorists. This danger had increased because the US was now handing out the weapon to seven factions in the US-backed Afghan Alliance and because Iran was infiltrating many agents.

The Administration has adopted a new strategy of arming all the US-supported groups with the Stinger, to increase pressure on the Soviet Union to withdraw its 115,000 troops, according to Pentagon sources.

A military source said the US was also sending some copies of an updated Stinger model.

It was not clear whether he was referring to the Stinger Post, which is just being delivered now to the US armed forces, or some other modified version.

Post is an acronym for Passive Optical Seeker Technique. A Stinger Post employs an advanced guidance system using an image scan that facilitates detection of aircraft and provides two systems for locking on to the target, one sensitive to infrared and the other to ultraviolet energy.

US military sources said US soldiers had scored only a 45 per cent ratio in tests but the Afghan rebels were scoring between 60 per cent and 80 per cent.

Military sources said the US program was devised to train illiterate Afghan rebels on the sophisticated weapon. One reason for their success was that all aircraft inside Afghanistan were hostile.