Launcher And (Briefly) Rocket Show Up On eBay

In the small pond of Soviet weapons collectors, the big frog has got to be Richard Moore of Cambridgeshire, England -- because of his big FROG. FROG in capitals, for "Free Rocket Over Ground," was the NATO codename of the obsolete Luna-M Russian missile and launcher that got Moore into the newspapers -- after he briefly listed the weapon on eBay. Moore calls it "the mother of all toys" -- presumably, for the boy that outgrew model rockets without quite growing up.

Designed for use in a European war that thankfully never happened, and often equipped in Soviet service with special-weapons warheads, the FROG's only combat employment has been in the Middle East. It was a simpler, less accurate and shorter-ranged weapon than the more famous SCUD, the ultimately ineffective rocket of the first Gulf War. The FROG was unguided with a range of some forty miles and was meant for battlefield employment as long-range artillery.

The surface-to-surface missile, of course, has been thoroughly demilitarized -- rendering it perfectly suitable for museums or collectors, but frustratingly useless to terrorists or other miscreants. "I guess anything with the word 'missile' in it is sensitive, but as I keep saying to everyone, the missile in question couldn't cause any harm and is literally just the shell," Moore told a reporter from Reuters.

Because it's deactivated, eBay has no problems with Moore listing the missile and launcher -- although, the online auction house expects him to list them separately and pay for two auctions, not one.

As a result, only the launcher is listed on eBay now... the massive eight-wheeled Zil-131 truck familiar from many Red Square festivities. If you buy the launcher, Moore will gladly sell you the missile too. But having your own May Day parade doesn't come cheap: bidding on the launcher starts at �18,990.

FMI: www.ebay.com