The U.S. and Cuba continue to rebuild broken ties, as a dummy Hellfire missile mistakenly sent to Cuba from Europe has been returned to the U.S., CNBC reported.
The missile, which was sent to Cuba in 2014, is a 100-pound missile that is guided by a laser. It is an air-to-surface missile that was manufactured by Lockheed Martin and was built with the intention of being deployed from a helicopter or drone in an attack.
"We can say, without speaking to specifics, that the inert training missile has been returned with the cooperation of the Cuban government," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, according to Reuters.
The missile ended up in Cuba after a NATO training exercise in 2014 and was later discovered on a commercial flight from Paris by customs.
"Once the U.S. government officially informed the Cuban government that a training missile belonging to the company Lockheed Martin was mistakenly sent to our country and expressed its interest in recovering it, Cuba communicated the decision to hand it over and started arrangements for its return," Cuban officials said in a statement.
The recovery of the missile took more than a year to finalize.
"The reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the re-opening of our embassy in Havana allow us to engage with the Cuban government on issues of mutual interest," Toner said, according to CNN.
