The Nazi Rocket Scientist Who Vanished, Crippling Egypt's Missile Program
In 1962, Egypt's Missile Program Lost Its Key Scientist Without a Trace
In 1962, Egypt's missile program relied on former Nazi scientists, including Heinz Krug, a key coordinator. After a mysterious visitor, Krug disappeared from Munich, never to be seen again. His fate remains unknown, with theories ranging from Mossad assassination to a new life in Austria. The incident was part of Israel's Operation Damocles, aimed at halting Egypt's rocket development.
My husband has been carried off, for he had absolutely no reason to disappear of his own free will.
- doughnutstracks
Lots of shady missile deals went down in West Asia/North Africa in the 60/70s. Somewhat related: Israel was collaborating with Iran on missile projects but allegedly planned to deceive them by providing outdated missiles while using Iranian funds to develop superior versions for themselves [0].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Project_Flower
- somat
Related? the Helwan HA-300. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helwan_HA-300
Summary: Egypt was going to develop an indigenous fighter in the 1960's based off of a mostly finished Spanish design by a post WWII otherwise unemployed Willy Messerschmitt.
I First heard of the project via a pretty good youtube documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqIpJuqvsWQ Messerschmitt's Remarkably Good Supersonic Fighter (Not A Pound For Air To Ground)
- Lucasoato
This is something that’s actively happening nowadays as well. One way to slow down a country development is hunting its top scientists that are working in military tech.
In recent years US has been hit so hard, probably it will have even worse side effects since this discourages other scientists from following that career path as well.
- bookofjoe
- pseudohadamard
If you want an interesting related story that's so incredible people wouldn't believe if it was a film plot, look up Otrag. Not the Wikipedia page, that only tells a fraction of the full story. There's a documentary floating around somewhere about their work in Zaire under Mobutu before they started building ballistic missiles for Gaddafi.