**After only 66 per cent of the Mistral missiles hit their target successfully in an exercise held early last week, Istvan Simicsko of Hungary’s Fidesz party, deputy chairman of the parliament Defence Committee, said that for the government to pay 28bn forints for these missiles is a waste of money. But on Tuesday, Defence Minister Ferenc Juhasz said an inquiry had shown that the Mistral that exploded during an exercise before reaching its target on October 9 is likely to have hit a flock of birds. (Hungarian TV2 satellite, Oct.11; MTI news agency, Oct. 16)