Missile hit on MH17 required 'extensive training': military experts
Whoever fired the surface-to-air missile that brought down a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine would have needed extensive training to execute the mission, according to military experts.
Whoever fired the surface-to-air missile that brought down a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine would have needed extensive training to execute the mission, according to military experts.
Taking down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, travelling about 960km/h at an altitude of 10,000 metres required vastly more expertise than, for example, firing a shoulder-braced rocket-propelled grenade at a slow-moving helicopter. A crew of at least four would have been needed to accurately fire the truck-mounted Russian-made SA-11 missile, also known as a Buk missile system.
"You've got to have people who are technically competent," said retired US Army Major General Stephen Reeves, who served as an intelligence officer in Western Europe.
The SA-11 is a 1972-era weapon system, and is not as technologically advanced or easy to operate as more modern weaponry.
You don't just take some folks off the street, and 30 days later they're trained
"This is a hard system to use, in today's terms," said retired Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, a former director of the US Missile Defence Agency, who estimated that each of the SA-11 crew members would have needed at least six months of training.