Finland 'finds Patriot missiles' on China-bound ship

[Stanislaw]

Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.

Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks".

The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks".

The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.

Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds.

Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.

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[hey]

the missiles were marked "fireworks".

lol

[Cail]

would be more worried if they were en route to some where else, but still, w t f?

[Drex]

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets

the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake

riiiight

[Cleverness]

"I don't know how that weed got in my car officer."

Same concept

[Souj]

Thor Liberty!

[Moss]

anti-missile missiles?

[Kaylia]

Thor Liberty!

They were on the way to Asgard

[Kuya]

anti-missile missiles?

Yea?

[Gregorio]

anti-missile missiles?

That technology isn't a big deal any more. We have counter-anti-missile missiles now.

[Zeb]

Fireworks TO China? C'mon man, try a little harder.

[Kaylia]

That technology isn't a big deal any more. We have counter-anti-missile missiles now.

Wouldnt you call an "anti anti-missile" a missile?

[Kuya]

Are anti ballistic missiles still innefective? I remember hearing how they just couldn't realistically stop every missile from getting through a defense perimeter.

[Kryssan]

The Patriot doesn't exactly have a good track record, no... the newer revision/generation design is supposedly much better for interception and has been used in combat against normal missiles, but the last time they were used against other ballistics in any real foray was the early 90s...

[Niiro]

Are anti ballistic missiles still innefective? I remember hearing how they just couldn't realistically stop every missile from getting through a defense perimeter.

Trying to hit missiles with other missiles (well, they don't necessarily impact each other, but w/e) was never a fool proof strategy but it's not like there's much else you can do stop them and intercepting even a portion is well worth the effort.

Once we figured out the whole "lasers from space" thing was a dead end "throw more missiles back" remained the only workable strategy.

[Kerberoz]

anti-missile missiles are so 20th century

Spoiler: show

they just need to paint a shark's face on it

[Plow]

Wouldnt you call an "anti anti-missile" a missile?

they're more like clusters of fire and shit I believe

[Churchill]

They require certain radar networks to be active to be effective nowadays, in the gulf war (where their initial track record comes from) the technology didn't exist yet. From what I understand, they're fairly effective now but if Russia went balls deep you'd still see some glass cities.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Lasers are a superior defense mechanism. Hella expensive, though. Also, i found the name of the ship and the fireworks label amusing as well.

[BadKarma]

The only way to defend against missiles that is 100% effective is a midget with a jetpack and a hammer.