KYIV, Ukraine—If
the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro falls, experts warn the country’s arsenal of
Russian-made, SA-24 surface-to-air missiles might end up in the hands of
terrorists or drug cartels, posing a threat to U.S. civil aviation.
Man-portable air
defense systems, or “MANPADS,” are a particularly chilling threat in the hands
of a terrorist organization, since, by design, the weapons are transportable by
a single person, making them much easier to smuggle than larger weapons systems.
For that reason, U.S. security officials have long warned of MANPADS proliferating from the battlefields of Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. Yet, unlike those distant warzones, weapons from Venezuela could arrive …read more
Source: The Daily Signal
