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| Iraq |
| US-British planes hit missile base near Basra again |
| 2003-02-13 |
| US and British warplanes Wednesday attacked an Iraqi surface-to-surface missile system that had been moved into striking range of US troops in Kuwait, US military officials said. The missile base, located near Basra in southern Iraq, was struck for the first time Tuesday, but coalition warplanes returned to knock out its radar, said Navy Commander Dan Balice, a spokesman for the US Central Command. "Today's target was against a portion of the system that was identified yesterday, but they didn't positively identify it as a legitimate target," he said. "So rather than hitting it when they weren't sure, they went back to recheck what they had seen and then hit it today." Being careful to avoid civilians A missile carrier also was struck in Wednesday's raid, said Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. The first raid struck the missile launcher, a command van and a support vehicle, he said. This is why they used so many smart bombs during the first raid. Most likely the targets were spread out over a wide area. A defense official, who asked not to be named, said it was an Abadil-100 ballistic missile system. It was the first time such missile launchers have been targeted by US and British air forces. A Central Command statement said the raid was carried out "after Iraqi forces moved the missile system into range of coalition forces in Kuwait." Those troops bunched up in Kuwait are too good a target for any WMD that Sammy's got. Anything that could hit them will be taken out ASAP. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 If you know what you're doing, you can assemble a decent guidance system from COTS parts. I've seen it done. As far as Iraq's claims of not having a guidance system yet, and that the added weight would affect the range, I think not. The system I saw built weighed about two pounds. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2003-02-13 13:59:41 |
| #5 From a military guy. The Nike-Herc system [double function as both an AA missile and Surface to Surface missile] had three radars. Two for target tracking and the third which was the missile tracking radar [MTR]. This radar functioned as part of the guidance system. Being a circa 50/60s design without advantage of transistors, the calculation for guidance were done on an analog computer in a van with the initial coordinates and corrections relayed via the MTR. If you don't have a good microprocessor technology to fab your own advance avionics, then this system design would provide something on a lesser scale but still viable. On the other hand, it always made for a very large target for the other guys. |
| Posted by: Don 2003-02-13 13:50:31 |
| #4 So, like do you think they would start the war without telling us, maybe hoping the French might not notice? |
| Posted by: Michael 2003-02-13 13:43:36 |
| #3 Tracking the bird after launch to check and adjust trajectory, probably. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-02-13 12:57:55 |
| #2 Question for you military guys from an ignorant civilian: Why does this short range surface to surface missile have a radar? Is it a 'firefinder' radar for locating artillery positions? |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-02-13 12:36:40 |
| #1 They're really, really serious about this target. You have to wonder if they had details on the warheads that were there. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-02-13 11:02:54 |