WASHINGTON — When the Reagan administration made a controversial decision to send shoulder-fired missiles to Afghan rebels in 1986, critics warned the move could come back to haunt the United States.
In the hands of an anti-American guerrilla, then-Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) cautioned, a Stinger missile could instantly turn a U.S. aircraft "into a bright orange inferno."
Soon, that warning may seem prescient.
Taliban forces in Afghanistan still have about 100 U.S.-supplied Stingers, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, and the weapons are potentially well suited to destroy the helicopters that are expected to soon begin ferrying U.S. special forces troops into the country.
Though some of the missiles probably are defective because of age or rough handling, some military officials believe others continue to pose a deadly threat. In addition, the ruling Taliban regime has purchased later-model Russian versions of the same weapon.
Experts note that the Afghans used them with such skill against the Soviets in the 1980s that the Stingers acquired the deadliest record against low-flying aircraft of any weapon since World War II.
The Taliban "does know how to use them," said Clifford Beal, editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, in London.
Countermeasures Are Available
Developed by the Army in the 1980s, the Stinger is a 35-pound shoulder-mounted missile that uses an infrared sensor to locate an aircraft by the heat it emits. The 5-foot-long missile travels at twice the speed of sound and destroys its target with fragmentation explosives.
The missile functions at low altitudes--less than about 4,500 feet--and is not effective against aircraft traveling at low altitudes but high speed. U.S. forces have several countermeasures that can work against Stingers, such as the use of decoys. And the missiles are not as effective in night fighting.
Even so, they pose such a threat that the U.S. government in the 1990s organized a buyback program that offered as much as $100,000 each for the weapons. Some were returned, but many were not, as Afghan fighters consider them an effective weapon as well as a status symbol.
Beal said that, when U.S. officials tested some of the recovered Stingers, they found they still were viable.
Only this month, U.S. officials asked Pakistani authorities whether they had any information about 80 Stingers that are unaccounted for, and are believed to be in the hands of the Taliban.
