Special report: Why rockets?

IMRA
July 3, 2011

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2283/special-report-why-rockets

With Israel's ongoing battle against rockets and missiles launched at its civilian centers, the IDF's Spokesperson Unit published a report covering changes in the battlefield, including the threat of launched projectiles.

According to the report, the use of projectiles (or surface-to-surface armament, as the report calls them) serves terrorist organizations like the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah in several ways. These include creating a significant threat over the Israeli home front and limiting the IDF's ability to attack back.

The report explains that in launching rockets and missiles, the home front is defined as the central target. Preference is given to quantity over quality where as many rockets are procured and sometimes launched, accuracy not necessarily being the emphasis.

The use of launchers is spread over large surface areas, making it more difficult to detect their presence and making it more likely that they will continue operating. Launchers are often concealed, hidden deep within civilian environments, among vegetation, in small bunkers in open fields or in operatives' homes. In the case of moving launchers (which make their way from operative's home to operative's home), the IDF's window of time to respond can be as short as a few seconds.

Many launchers are used simultaneously, making each, single launcher that is destroyed almost negligible. The objective of missiles and rockets is to carry an explosive warhead from its launch site to a remote target. Rockets are comprised of an explosive warhead, a fuel-containing body and a tail containing an engine.

Two types of rockets are the Qassam and the Katyusha, the former an improvised rocket less likely to be accurate. Rockets have a range of several kilometers.

Missiles, on the other hand, equipped with internal guiding systems, are both more accurate and have a range thousands of kilometers away. A missile can also carry a heavier warhead and thus be more destructive than a rocket.

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