Al-Samoud 2
Encyclopedia
Ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
developed by Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in the years between the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
and the American Invasion
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
.
Development
The missile was essentially a scaled-down ScudScud
Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies...
, though parts were mostly derived from the Russian SA-2 'Guideline' surface-to-air missile. The first test-firing was carried out as early as 1997 and was supervised by UNSCOM. The production started in 2001, and the goal was the assembly of 10 missiles each month. The project was heavily dependent of technical assistance from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The Al Samoud 2 wasn't fully operational by 2003, although some of them were already delivered to the Iraqi army.
Engine
The rocket engine evolved from the SA-2 design and the thrust vector controls from the Scud.The system also included an Iraqi-designed mobile launcher similar to the Al-Nida, built for the missile Al Hussein
Al Hussein (missile)
Al Hussein or al-Husayn is the designation of an Iraqi ballistic missile. The missile was the result of upgrading the Soviet made Scud in order to achieve a longer range...
.
Payload
The missile carried a 280 kilogram warhead that was half high explosives and half protective steel shell. The explosive charge weighed 140 kg, made of a mixture of 84 kg of RDXRDX
RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...
=60%, 42 kg of TNT= 30% and 14 kg of aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
= 10%, the latter used as a fuse
Fuse (explosives)
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
.
The payload was also designed to upload different types of bomblets.
Guidance
The guidance package was assembled by cannibalizing gyroscopes from the ChineseChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Silkworm
Silkworm missile
The Shang Yo or SY-series , and the Hai Ying or HY-series were early Chinese anti-ship missiles. They were derived from the Soviet P-15 Termit missile.The HY-1 and HY-2 received the NATO reporting name Silkworm...
cruise missile.
A source is cited as claiming that there were inertial and even GPS guidance systems illegally imported from Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, though these allegations have never been confirmed..
Banned by the UN
1 E5 m
A length of 100 kilometers , as a rough amount, is relatively common in measurements on Earth and for some astronomical objects.It is the altitude at which the FAI defines spaceflight to begin....
, in breach of UNSCR 1441. The limit allowed by the UN is 150 km.
Iraq agreed to destroy the Al-Samoud 2 long range missiles, and as mid-March 2003, a number had been destroyed. Although UNMOVIC ordered to stop its production, Iraq assembled some 20 missiles during the early months of 2003.
American forces found a cache of twelve Al Samoud missiles south of Baiji
Baiji, Iraq
Baiji is a city of about 200,000 inhabitants in northern Iraq some 130 miles north of Baghdad, on the main road to Mosul. It is a major industrial centre best known for its oil refinery, the biggest in Iraq and has a large power plant...
on July 21, 2003.
Operational History (March-April 2003)
A number of Al-Samoud 2 missiles were fired at Kuwait during the 2003 conflict. One of them, aimed at the Coalition Headquarters at Camp DohaCamp Doha
Camp Doha was the main US Army base in Kuwait, and played a pivotal role in the US military presence in the Middle East since the 1991 Gulf War and in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The complex is located on a small peninsula on Kuwait Bay, west of Kuwait City...
, was successfully intercepted by a missile Patriot
MIM-104 Patriot
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations. It is manufactured by the Raytheon Company of the United States. The Patriot System replaced the Nike Hercules system as the U.S. Army's primary High to Medium...
on March 27. Some debris hit buildings inside the US base. The other missiles were also shot down or landed harmlessly in the desert.
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. Three soldiers and two foreign reporters were killed in the blast. Another 14 soldiers were injured, and 22 vehicles destroyed or seriously damaged, most of them Humvees.
See also
- List of missiles
- Al HusseinAl Hussein (missile)Al Hussein or al-Husayn is the designation of an Iraqi ballistic missile. The missile was the result of upgrading the Soviet made Scud in order to achieve a longer range...