Posted on 01/01/2006 4:55:55 PM PST by strategofr
Hamas has new missile to fire into Israel. Terrorists switching tactics from suicide bombings to shooting rockets.
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is manufacturing a new kind of rocket in hopes of switching tactics from suicide bombings to firing missiles deep inside Israel after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon completes a withdrawal from Gaza.
The new rocket, named Nasser 3, is the most powerful and furthest reaching rocket produced yet in the Palestinian territories. The rocket carries a five-kilogram warhead to a range of 9 kilometers and has a standard explosive warhead combined with metal fragments and a standard fuse.
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Previously, the Palestinians had been using Qassam 2 rockets, which used improvised fuses and warheads that didn't always explode upon impact. The Nasser 3 is built to guarantee an explosion.
Since November 2001, some 350 Qassam rockets have been fired from Gaza at targets within the Green Line, causing few casualties and minor damage. Israeli officially initially dismissed Palestinian rocket firing as largely ineffective, though it was recognized that the rockets had the potential to become a more significant threat.
"The Nasser 3 brings things to a whole new level of warfare," a security source told WND. "Hamas knows they can't get inside Israel because of the security fence, and they are setting the stages for a major shift in tactics from suicide bombings to firing effective rockets from Palestinian areas deep inside Israel."
The IDF believes most of the Nasser 3's components are manufactured within Gaza and that Hezbollah engineers trained the Palestinians in rocket construction. The fuses and some parts of the explosives were likely smuggled from the underground tunnels connecting Egypt to the Rafah refugee camp.
The rocket is cased in a 110-120 millimeter diameter steel water pipe, containing some 20 kilograms of improvised solid propellant, usually manufactured from available potassium nitrate fertilizer and powdered sugar.
"It appears there was some improvement in the propellant's mixture, which we cannot yet determine," an Israeli police explosive specialist said.
The Nasser 3 has four stabilizing fins welded to the casing and is launched from rails mounted on a bipod. An electric fuse, triggered by a timing mechanism or a live rocket crew, ignites the rocket's engine.
The new Nasser 3 rockets were recently tested by Hamas and fired from Gaza toward the southern Israeli town of Sderot on June 28, killing two residents, one of them a 3-year-old child.
The IDF has been debating how best to respond to the new rocket threat. Israel has been using both ground and airborne observation platforms, including use of a 24-hour thermal camera, combined with an upgraded artillery-locating radar to detect and attack rocket-firing teams.
Sharon's chief spokesman, Raanan Gissin, would not comment on specific plans Israel is implementing, but told WND: "Israel will deal with this threat and we will suppress it. The rockets are a major violation of the so-called rules of the game."
The palestinians are going to keep farting around until they get their butts beat bad. Maybe thats what they want a good butt whipping and then they go to the UN and cry about how Israel kicked their butts.
Now that they've given up whole portions of the Gaza Strip it should be easier for the Israeli to strafe bomb their terrorist lights out.
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The heck you say the Palestinians are building these things. They may be repainting some Russian stuff smuggled in with help from Syria, but not making anything.
Gaza must be good for business?
For every rocket, terrorist bombing or anything that hurts any Israeli, a five mile swath of Pali land from just opposite the security fence should be completely cleaned out. The fence moved five miles, increasing Israeli land. Kill everyone and everything in that five mile area. Let the Pali's continue with the terror attacks and the fence is moved five miles more. Soon there will be no more Palistenians...and no great loss to the world. These terror attacks will not stop until the price is so great for the terrorists that they have no choice but to stop or be destroyed.
Maybe the Islamofascists blow themselves up because they realize they are worthless. Maybe they're switching tactics because they realize that everyone else is catching on that they know they are worthless. Just a thought.
Ditto. I might add build a wall after each expansion to keep them from coming back. ( Fill the gap with lots of artillary kept ready to pulverize the next 5 miles.)
"The heck you say the Palestinians are building these things. They may be repainting some Russian stuff smuggled in with help from Syria, but not making anything."
I believe Israeli forensics would detect this.
"The heck you say the Palestinians are building these things. They may be repainting some Russian stuff smuggled in with help from Syria, but not making anything."
By the way, the Israelis have found missile-making facilities a number of times.
Hamas has a loan program now!? ;-)
Nope, they actually do the DIY rocket thing in the middle east. They use a cheap, plastic solid fuel that is simple to manufacture with very primitive tooling. It is not remotely performant or efficient by any means, but it gets the job done and the relatively low energy matches well with the very sloppy tolerances of the rest of the rocket. If they were designing a high-performance motor, they could not pull it off.
They have been building these things for decades. A common rocket fuel for DIY crappy solid fuel rockets is nothing more than sugar with an inorganic chlorate or perchlorate oxidizer. If you are reasonably careful about temperature control, you can melt the sugar to cast the motor grain and get a uniform mixture. The oxidizer is competent, but using sugar as a fuel sucks a lot of the energy out of it though making it easy to work with and come by. The contrail does have a nice marshmallow smell.
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