Two missiles in cargo hold on Air Serbia flight from Beirut

[underfire]

a dummy round is identified by a blue band rather that a yellow band..

It is the same missile, propellant and all, just without an explosive warhead...it is a solid propellant...





EDIT: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/i..._from_leb.html

[msbbarratt]

It is the same missile, propellant and all, just without an explosive warhead...it is a solid propellant...

There's lots of different types of dummy rounds. There's totally inert ones for handling training, which is probably what's been shipped here. Of these there might be ones that are for ground handling training only but can't fly, and ones that are correctly ballasted and are flight certified, etc. etc.

Then there can be ones that'll fly but have a smaller or no warhead for pilot training. There's certainly instrumented trials rounds that have a telemetry package instead of the warhead, etc. There's a lot of combinations possible once you've got the basic missile package developed.

Someone would have been acting very casually indeed if they'd seen fit to let a round with propellant out of their sight. I'd be no happier about a round full of propellant than with one that has a warhead. Both are pyrotechnics, both can be very dangerous, both have a shelf life and safe handling requirements.