The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A ROCKET-propelled grenade launcher was found hidden under an abandoned stove in bushes off Tonique Williams-Darling Highway on Tuesday.

Police said officers from Operation Black Scorpion, with help from the Anti-Terrorism Unit and the Canine Support Unit, were acting on information when they searched an area on the southern side of Pride Estates shortly after 7pm. Under the stove, they found a green camouflage bag containing the launcher.

Police did not say whether the launcher still contained a rocket. No arrests were reported. Police said the launcher was seized and will be processed as evidence.

The discovery comes just weeks before King Charles III’s official visit and will be sure to increase security precautions.

The Tribune understands its markings and telescoping tube suggest the weapon is a light anti-tank weapon, sometimes called a light anti-armour weapon. It is beleived to be a United States-designed, single-use launcher which fires a 66mm unguided rocket with a high-explosive anti-tank warhead, built to disable armoured vehicles and fortified positions at short range.

Such weapons entered service with the US military in the early 1960s and were used in the Vietnam War. They have since been carried by armed forces around the world, including in Canada, Australia, Israel and Taiwan. A soldier extends the telescoping tube to ready the weapon, which cocks the launcher and raises its sight. The rocket is then fired from the shoulder.

The Canadian Army lists the effective range of similar weapons as 220 metres and its maximum range as up to 350 metres, and says its warhead can penetrate up to 350mm of armour. The launcher is designed to be thrown away after a single shot. Newer versions use different warheads, but the basic design is the same.

Discoveries of military explosive weapons in The Bahamas are rare.

In November 2013, police found what was believed to be a live hand grenade inside the New Providence headquarters of The Punch tabloid after responding to an alarm and finding the building’s front doors smashed in. The newspaper’s marketing manager said at the time that the grenade’s pin had been pulled and it could have exploded.