Steve
En-Route
I feel safer now?
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003340.html
(AP)-- Federal agents seized four retired F-14 fighter jets that authorities said were improperly transferred from the Navy to two air museums and the company that produced the TV show "JAG."
The Tomcats were not properly demilitarized before being transferred to private parties, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which worked with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in a 17-month investigation.
Under the rigorous demilitarization process, navigation, radar and other sensitive equipment are disabled so they can no longer perform military functions, said Cmdr. Dave Werner, a U.S. Navy spokesman.
Two of the jets were at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California, another was at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, and the fourth, which was acquired by Paramount Pictures, then resold to a scrap dealer, had been stored at a facility operated by Southern California Aviation at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California.
None of the jets were currently flyable, but one in Chino still has its engines and was at least superficially in very good condition, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. The other three do not have engines but were otherwise essentially whole, she said.
There was no indication any of the hardware fell into the wrong hands "but it does present a vulnerability," Kice said.
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003340.html
(AP)-- Federal agents seized four retired F-14 fighter jets that authorities said were improperly transferred from the Navy to two air museums and the company that produced the TV show "JAG."
The Tomcats were not properly demilitarized before being transferred to private parties, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which worked with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in a 17-month investigation.
Under the rigorous demilitarization process, navigation, radar and other sensitive equipment are disabled so they can no longer perform military functions, said Cmdr. Dave Werner, a U.S. Navy spokesman.
Two of the jets were at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California, another was at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, and the fourth, which was acquired by Paramount Pictures, then resold to a scrap dealer, had been stored at a facility operated by Southern California Aviation at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California.
None of the jets were currently flyable, but one in Chino still has its engines and was at least superficially in very good condition, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. The other three do not have engines but were otherwise essentially whole, she said.
There was no indication any of the hardware fell into the wrong hands "but it does present a vulnerability," Kice said.
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