Launchers Outdated, But Still Capable Of Mayhem

The Age

Saturday January 6, 2007

SARAH SMILES

THE rocket launchers believed to be still missing are 66-millimetre light anti-armour weapons capable of penetrating, to some degree, armour or concrete.

The single-use weapons are 60 centimetres long, but about a metre when fully extended. They are designed to be fired off the shoulder. A rocket could blow a hole in a building if fired from short range. Splinters from shrapnel could kill or badly injure people within a five-metre radius.

But a security consultant, Peter Collins, said they would have little effect on a building with the strength of a nuclear reactor such as Lucas Heights. "It would chip away the exterior," he said.

© 2007 The Age

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