Air Defense: Avenger Is Southbound

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November 18, 2009: Chile is buying 36 American Avenger air defense systems. Avengers are hummers with a turret mounted on the back. The turret contains two missile pods (each containing four Stinger anti-aircraft missiles). Under one pod there is an M3P .50 caliber (12.7mm) machine gun. The weapons operator has use of a FLIR (night vision device) and a laser range finder. The machine-gun, however, can't be depressed sufficiently to fire at ground targets towards the front of the vehicle. The missiles have a range of four kilometers, the machine-gun about half that. Chile is paying about $12.6 million per Avenger, including a nearly 400 Stinger missiles, training gear, spare parts and training and technical assistance.