Al-Samoud 2

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An Al-Samoud missile captured by US forces in Southern Iraq (2003)
An Al-Samoud missile captured by US forces in Southern Iraq (2003)

Al-Samoud (الصمود, alternately Al-Samed, which means steadfastness in Arabic) was a liquid-fuel ballistic missile developed by Iraq in the years between the Gulf War and the American Invasion.

Contents

[edit] Development

The missile was essentially a scaled-down Scud, though parts were also derived from the Russian SA-2 'Guideline' surface-to-air missile. 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 and Russia. The Al Samoud 2 wasn't fully operational by 2003, although some of them were already delivered to the Iraqi army.[1]

[edit] 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.[2]

[edit] Payload

The missile carried a 280 kilogram warhead that was half high explosives and half protective steel shell. The explosive charge weighted 140 kg, made of a mixture of 84 kg of RDX=60%, 42 kg of TNT= 30% and 14 kg of aluminium= 10%, the latter used as a fuse. The payload was also designed to upload different types of bomblets. [3]

[edit] Guidance

The guidance package was assembled by cannibalizing gyroscopes from the Chinese Silkworm cruiser missile. [4] A source claim that there were inertial and even GPS guidance systems illegally imported from Belarus.[5]

[edit] Banned by the UN

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A test-launch of an Al Samoud, circa 2001
A test-launch of an Al Samoud, circa 2001

On February 13, 2003, a UN panel reported that Iraq's Al-Samoud 2 missiles, disclosed by Iraq to weapons inspectors in December, have a range of 180 km, in breach of UNSCR 1441. The limit allowed by the UN is 150 km, a threshold at which the missile crosses into being known as a weapon of mass destruction.

Iraq agreed to destroy the Al-Samoud 2 long range missiles, and as of March 2, 2003, ten had been destroyed. Although UNMOVIC ordered a freeze, according to a former senior official at Al Karamah, Iraq produced approximately twenty missiles during the first quarter of 2003. Another source claimed that, after UNMOVIC inspectors departed the country in March 2003, Iraq was able to assemble about four Al Samoud 2 missiles from remaining parts that had been placed in mobile trucks to avoid air strikes. These missiles were not delivered to the Army.

American forces found a cache of twelve Al Samoud missiles south of Baiji on July 21, 2003.

[edit] Operational History (March-April 2003)

A number of Al-Samoud 2 missiles were fired at Kuwait during the 2003 conflict.[6] One of them, aimed at the Coalition Headquarters at Camp Doha, was successfully intercepted by a missile Patriot on March 27. Some debris hit buildings inside the US base.[7] The other missiles were also shot down or landed harmlessly in the desert.

Aftermath of the iraqi missile attack
Aftermath of the iraqi missile attack

A similar development, the Al-Fahd or Ababil-100, a solid propellant version of the Al-Samoud,[5] was also used by the Iraqi army during the invasion. The Headquarters of the 2nd Brigade, US 3rd Infantry Division, were struck by a missile of this kind on April 7, while the Brigade's main force was conducting an incursion 15 km north, well inside Baghdad. Three soldiers and two foreign reporters were killed in the blast. Other 14 soldier were injured, and 22 vehicles destroyed or seriously damaged, most of them Humvees.[8][9][10][11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ www.globalsecurity.org/Al-Samoud
  2. ^ www.globalsecurity.org/Al Samoud 2
  3. ^ www.globalsecurity.org/Al Samoud 2
  4. ^ www.globalsecurity.org/Al Samoud 2
  5. ^ a b www.globalsecurity.org/Ababil
  6. ^ The sources claim that only three to five Al-Samoud 2 were actually used by the Iraqis, the remainder missiles were purportedly Ababil-100/Al-Fahd or Laith-90, this latter a locally upgraded version of the Frog-7:
  7. ^ www.cnn.com/2003
  8. ^ Zucchino, David: Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad. Grove Press, 2004, page 162.
  9. ^ Iraqi missile hits Army base, By Steven Lee Myers. The New York Times, 04/07/2003.
  10. ^ www.globalsecurity.org
  11. ^ Special report about the death of the two journalists (in German)

[edit] See also