Major Cory Mendenhall said a site with around 50 SA-7 and two SA-3 surface-to-air missiles, along with the FROG and a cache of warheads had been found Thursday with help from local residents.

The major told AFP that ordnance teams would be brought in before anything was done to the missiles, and added that several dozen Iraqi army trucks and armoured vehicles had also been located and disabled.

The FROG (Free Rocket Over Ground) is an unguided Soviet-designed missile with a range of no more than 70 kilometres (45 miles), the last version of which was produced in 1968, according to specialist websites.

It can carry nuclear or chemical as well as high explosive warheads.

Earlier a military spokesman at US Central Command headquarters in Qatarv said Australian forces had found 51 combat planes at an abandoned airfield in western Iraq.

Coalition forces encountered no enemy aircraft during their three-week war on Saddam Hussein's regime and enjoyed complete freedom of the skies apart from some ground fire.

SPACE.WIRE