Posted on 04/02/2008 10:25:47 PM PDT by jhpigott
A military correspondent for Israel's Channel Two News reported on Tuesday night that many of the mortar shells fired at southern Israel by Gaza-based Palestinian forces earlier in the day were Iranian-made 120mm shells.
The heavy mortar shells have far more destructive power than the locally-produced Kassam rockets, and have a range of up to 5 miles. The speed at which the shells travel also renders useless an early warning system installed in several southern Israel communities to give residents an opportunity to reach safety in the event of an attack.
The report also noted that structural reinforcements on public buildings in the hard-hit town of Sderot were designed to protect against the weaker and slower Kassam rockets, and will not hold up against the Iranian mortars.
“could clear up the idea of counter battery fire and why it does not work very well for high trajectory attacks featuring mortar bombs.”
In general, counter-batter fire utilizes radar to target -— tracking back the “arc”. The steeper the arc, the less change in angle in a given area and less presise the firing solution on the source. Wind and random drift complicates things.
Because the IDF is dealing with a more-or-less fixed “area” of mortor/ballistic missle sources, the IDF counter-battery fire has the luxury of using multiple precisely-fixed radar sources and mutliple wind monitoring stations. (Along with certain acoustic sensors and computers tying it all together.)
The result is that counter battery fire can theoretically occur before the projectile has reached the apex of the arc.
The problem with this is there can be false alarms, and if put on a hair trigger (e.g., firing before impact), we could be killing people randomly.
Knowing the Israelis will not willingly kill people randomly, the arabs do use “shoot and scoot,” generally on the second shoot, as confirmation of a live round has been confirmed (about 7-8 seconds).
More exciting (and this is not secret), is real time drone/GPS targeting that will permit “counter battery” fire as the arabs are setting up -— before they fire the first shot.
There are also anti-ballistic missle lasers (small scale) being implaced using the same targeting systems -— but on a hair trigger, as civilians do not fly through the air.
I predict lots of birds will be fried in mid-flight.
Dang.
“AFAIK, no counterbattery system can process data and get a return round off that fast.”
No, that’s not true.
The problem is human (or sonor/audio -— of the impact) confirmation that what you are dealing with is a ballistic weapon.
I think I see a smiling face in the center section of the mushroo cloud.
of Wimmin’-n-Chilruns,,,LOL
“IF”(big if),,,The radar is manned and the bad guys fire a
round,,,As soon as the radar “sees” it in the arc,,,
The operator can tell within 10 yards where it came from.
Counter-battery fire is then directed back to that spot,,,
See post # 25,,,also :
Mortars and high-angle artillery are the easiest to track,
Rockets are harder,,,(low angle katyusha),,,40 years ago;0)
That warning time is a tuff one,,,:0/
The “low angle” rockets are now easier -— they are faster and have a heat signature -— so they are clearly not false alarms —— and can get more quick response, relying more on computers than a person’s judgment.
Good night!
The low angle rockets are now easier - they are faster and have a heat signature - so they are clearly not false alarms and can get more quick response, relying more on computers than a persons judgment.
~~~
Actually the low-angle round is sometimes in the
Ground-clutter,Radar won’t lock-on,,then,,back in the day,,,
It was 19 year old eyes,,,with a radio,,,;0)
There is still ground clutter, but with more-or-less fixed radar sites and every-square-inch known terrain, computers adjust for this amazingly well.
Great news. I’m so glad you found FR - I learn a lot from you.
That’s the Syrian side of the Golan,,,FWIW...
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