Pentagon Can't Account For All Exported Shoulder-Fired Missiles

In an investigative report highly critical of the Pentagon, the General Accounting Office accuses military leaders of losing shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, calling the worldwide effort to stop proliferation of such weapons "toothless."

The report accuses the Pentagon of sloppy bookkeeping, of being unable to answer for all the Stingers it's sold or given away. For instance, Army records show that branch has sent 7,551 Stingers overseas between 1982 and 2004. But a report by the San Francisco Chronicle quotes the GAO as saying the real number was 8,331.

The Army says it never shipped Stingers to Egypt. The GAO report shows 89 shoulder-mounted SAMs were actually sent to Cairo.

"The current international export control system is insufficient to prevent the proliferation of shoulder-fired rockets designed to take down aircraft of all kinds, including civilian airliners," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in an interview with the Chronicle.

The DOD "lacks procedures for conducting Stinger inspections and requirements for keeping inspection records," according to the GAO report. This, even though Man Portable Air Defense systems (MANPADS) like the Stinger fall under the Pentagon's "Golden Sentry" program. Under the program, the Pentagon monitors the sale and disposition of critical weapons systems.

But the GAO says Golden Sentry is apparently asleep on duty, saying, "officials overseas use inconsistent practices to perform Stinger inspections. ... (Defense Department) officials in one country we visited reported opening the Stinger container cases to count the missiles. (Department) officials in another country we visited reported counting only the Stinger container cases."

According to the Chronicle, the report quotes TSA Deputy Administrator Stephen McHale as saying, "Although there have been no MANPADS attacks within the United States, the threat posed by terrorists equipped with MANPADS is of credible concern," McHale says in the report. "Even an unsuccessful MANPADS attack on a commercial airliner would have a devastating economic and political impact."

FMI: www.gao.gov