14 DAY TRIAL // Such is life that, every once in a while, things go missing. Apparently, the military is no stranger to such mishaps either. Not even when it comes to artillery.
Word has it that, towards the end of last week, the US Army lost a missile weighing around 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) and measuring some 64 inches (160 centimeters) somewhere in upstate New York.
The missile was lost on Friday, during a training exercise. It hasn't yet been found and officials at Fort Drum are hoping regular folks might help them retrieve it.
The missile is merely a dummy
No need to start packing your bags and book a flight to the opposite side of the country if you happen to live in upstate New York.
This missile that was lost during a training exercise last Friday doesn't contain any explosives and so does not pose a threat. Rather, it's just a dummy.
Besides, US Army officials reassure that it is not motorized either. Long story short, it's more of a toy than a proper weapon.
As for how people can expect to recognize it, it appears that the lost missile replicates the design of the deadly Hellfire, Huffington Post explains.
Army officials ask that anybody who happens to find the dummy weapon call Fort Drum's 10th Mountain Division Operations Center at 315-772-6324.
How does one lose a missile?
As you can imagine, US Army officials haven't exactly presented a detailed report on how the training missile was lost. Not to the general public, at least.
All the same, it is understood that the projectile somehow fell off an Apache helicopter. Since it's a dummy and, therefore, cannot be properly fired or dropped like the real deal, it is unclear how and why the device plummeted to the ground.
What it known is that the fake missile was added to the chopper's cargo to simulate the weight of real artillery during combat.
