The U.S. military reportedly spirited a Russian-made Pantsir-S1 air defence system out of Libya last year, after it was captured from forces aligned with rogue general Khalifa Haftar.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that the operation had the immediate ostensible aim of preventing the system from falling into the hands of any number of militant and terrorist groups in that country, but there would also be clear intelligence benefits from obtaining a largely intact example of this system, which Russia operates and has also exported widely.

British newspaper The Times was first to report the covert mission, which it said took place in June 2020. A U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft is said to have flown to Zuwarah International Airport, situated to the west of Tripoli, to pick up the Pantsir-S1, which it then flew to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.