Amid tensions over a possible war against neighboring Guyana, an unusual arrest was reported in Venezuela over the weekend. A man was captured by the military and a Russian R-73 missile, used on Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, was recovered from him. Venezuelan Air Force.
Agents from the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence arrested the man in the city of El Sombrero, in the northwest of the country. The man's identity and the circumstances of the operation were not revealed.
The missile was found in the backyard of the detained man's residence, on top of small tires and metal struts, next to a tile. It is also not known how the prisoner obtained the missile, but according to the portal Military zone, the artifact may have been stolen from within the Captain Manuel Ríos Air Base.
A Venezuelan man has been arrested after the Venezuelan military found he was hiding an R-73 air to air missile at his house in Guárico.#Venezuela pic.twitter.com/E9ILUtnz3F
- CNW (@ConflictsW) December 3, 2023
Through social media, the Commander of the Bolivarian Military Aviation, General Santiago Infante Itriago, said that the captured R-73 was an inert training version, without explosives or the rocket engine. Now recovered, the Russian missile will be used “for instructional purposes,” the official said.
View this photo on InstagramADVERTISING
Manufactured by Vympel, the R-73 is a short-range missile guided through the infrared spectrum, that is, it is guided by heat sources. The R-73 replaced the old R-60 and was one of the first air-to-air missiles with vectored thrust, which greatly increased the device's maneuverability. The weapon can reach 2,5 times the speed of sound, has an 8-kilo warhead and can hit aerial targets up to 40 km away.
The R-73s were acquired by Venezuela in 2005 to arm the Su-30 MKV fighters, the most powerful in the country. Each aircraft normally carries two to four missiles of this type, depending on the mission.
Even in their inert versions, missiles are sensitive weapons and must be stored in special magazines, and not in the open air as seen in this case.
