MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Navy tests successfully mid range missiles

The Argentine Navy successfully launched two ground-air mid range Aspide missiles, according to an official release on Wednesday from the Ministry of Defence.

The missiles originally from Italian factory Selenia were refurbished at the Argentine Armed Forces Scientific and Technical research centre, CITEFA. The missiles were fired from the naval air base of Punta Indio in the province of Buenos Aires and will enable the Argentine Navy "to recover its air defence capacity" points out the release. Qualified staff from the Ministry of Defence different specialized departments played a key role in "re-powering" the Aspide missile which is 1.5 meters long and weighs 110 kilos. The second stage of the Aspide program is to test the missiles from one of the Navy's MEKO 60 Class destroyers. One this has achieved the Argentine Navy will have a weapon capable or repelling air attacks against its units. CITEFA recently completed a similar re-powering process for the Magic air to air missiles. High officials from the Ministry of Defence and from the Argentine Navy were present during the tests in Punta Indio.