The Italian missile was simply to intercept an enemy aircraft during an exercise last May off Sardinia. Two months later, this is the ASTER 30 worth 2 million euros still at the bottom of the water after missing its target.
As the Corriere Della Serra reports, the Italian Ministry of Defense has planned a mission to recover the missile “lost” from August 15.
An explosion 600 meters deep?
In the meantime, Rome tries to minimize the controversies concerning the incident occurred off the coast of Sardinia d’Arbatax, between Tertenia and Villaputzu. This missile full of explosives, taken from a Samp-T launcher, fell to the sea near the beaches and tourist cliffs of the Ogliastra.
The news, broadcast in early June on the Facebook page of the commune of Tortolì, then by the Union Sarda and relayed in recent days, had aroused concern, especially among the inhabitants of the territory.
Local authorities have issued a danger notice, prohibiting approaches less than 150 m from the alleged point where the missile, white and a little more than four meters, had flowed.
The Italian daily newspaper evokes a “complicated” recovery operation. The missile, produced in 700 copies by Italy and France, is 600 m deep. The option of exploding it at sea has not yet been dismissed.
From August 15 until September 20, three naval units and a remote-controlled submarine vehicle will study the possibilities to recover it.