Missing Hellfire Missile Found in Cuba Refused to be Returned, Another Missile Crisis Looming?
A Hellfire Missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin went missing two years ago and has now resurfaced in Cuba.
The missile was used during a NATO training in Spain, but was mistakenly sent to Cuba instead of Florida. According to RT, the United States is now thinking on potential threats, such as the Cubans stealing the advanced technology.
It should be noted that the missile cannot do any actual damage as it does not contain any form of explosives. The chance of Cuba stealing the technology or allowing U.S. rival countries, such as Russia and China, was the more anticipated threat.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a U.S. official with great knowledge of the situation confirmed it; however, he has yet to have an authority to speak publicly on the matter so he chose to remain anonymous for the time being.
The shipping mistake was blamed on missile manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which was given by the U.S. the authority to ship the dummy missile for the said NATO exercises.
However, after being used in Spain, the missile was shipped to Paris where it was mistakenly delivered to Havana, Cuba instead of Florida.
Unfortunately, despite the U.S. government demanding its piece of military weapon back, Cuba refused to return it, with reports saying that the country is showing no intent of giving back the Hellfire Missile that led to speculations of another Cuban Missile Crisis.
As reported by The Guardian, officials are also considering the possibility of the mistake as an act of espionage due to the fact that, despite the warming relations with Cuba, it remains tense.
On the other hand, Cuban head Raul Castro made a televised speech that said the U.S. needs to do more to make the relationship between two countries easy. Castro noted that "imperative the government of the United States remove all policies of the past."
Contrary to Castro's call, a lot has changed during the past 10 months that President Barack Obama announced his plan to normalize the relationship between the countries, compared to the previous decades.
Case in point, Cuba was removed for America's list of state sponsors of terrorism, reopened an embassy in Havana and also implemented a number of new rules to ease restrictions on American business conducting in the country, plus a number of reforms.
However, with this latest blow to the U.S.-Cuba relations, it remains to be seen how this situation will affect the two countries for the long term.
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