NO U.S. SAILORS OR MARINES INJURED IN AQABA, JORDAN ROCKET ATTACK

Here's the official Navy statement on the incident. They also use the term "mortar rocket". Later in the article, they say it's a rocket. For a military organization, that is kind of an embarassing mistake. It was a mortar or rocket, not both.

They also make reference to the "insurgency" in Iraq. It's not an insurgency, it's a situation where foreign terrorists are infiltrating and committing terrorist acts to break the will of Iraqis, American troops, and Americans at home. The civilian press gets it wrong on purpose. The military press needs to get it right!

Rocket Attacks Miss U.S. Navy Ships

Story Number: NNS050819-07
Release Date: 8/19/2005 12:01:00 PM

From Samantha L. Quigley, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- No U.S. Sailors or Marines were injured in an apparent rocket attack Aug. 19 that missed two U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Jordan, officials reported.

"At approximately 8:44 a.m. local time, a suspected mortar rocket flew over the USS Ashland's (LSD 48) bow and impacted in a warehouse on the pier in the vicinity of the Ashland and the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3)," U.S. 5th Fleet officials said in a statement. "The warehouse sustained an approximate 8-foot hole in the roof of the building."

According to news reports, a Jordanian soldier was killed and another severely wounded when the rocket hit the warehouse. A second rocket hit near a Jordanian hospital and a third partially exploded, damaging a road and a car. A third rocket reportedly landed in the nearby Israeli city of Eilat, with no casualties and only minor damage.

The ships were in Aqaba supporting the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) training with the Jordanians, fleet officials said. The two ships, which appeared to be undamaged by shrapnel from the building, have left the port. Ashland is an amphibious landing ship; Kearsarge is an amphibious assault ship that also serves as command ship of an amphibious ready group.

The U.S. military said the attack is currently under investigation. News sources cite a Jordanian government release that states three Katyusha rockets were fired from a warehouse in Aqaba close to the port.

Information available on the Web said the Katyusha was originally a World War II-era Soviet rocket. However, references now to the weapon mean not just one type of rocket, but a whole range of different artillery rockets, whether from old Soviet or other-nation stock. The Katyusha reportedly has been used in a number of insurgencies, including those in Iraq.

For more Department of Defense news, visit www.defenselink.mil.

For more news from around the fleet, visit www.navy.mil.

Agreed the term used is misleading at best. Though the term is used in the U.K. military vernacular, which dates back to World War I, when the British military were looking for ways to increase the range of their "chemical" mortars, and developed a rocket propellant that would engage a short-time after the mortar round was expelled from the mortar tube. I believe they were able to achieve, up to an additional 600 yards, which is a good thing when using "chemical" munitions.

The term is also used by the U.S. military. In the U.S. the term is Rocket Assisted Ammunition. (RAP)XM984 ER-DPICM as an example. Which is used in conjunction with the 120 mm Mortar. It increases the effective range from about 8 km to approx. 12 km. The rocket assist also elongates the trajectory as well. Though in the strict sense it is neither a true mortar or true rocket, rather a rocket launched from a mortar. Though most mortars today utilize a propellant system.

Examples of the U.S. military using the term mortar rocket. http://www.defendamerica.mil/profiles/june2003/pr062703a.html http://www.ngb.army.mil/news/story.asp?id=776

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