Fajr-3 Rockets
Published on Jul 17, 2006 at 4:18 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under rockets.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) reports that that rockets falling on Israel are Fajr-3 rockets.  Fajr means “dawn†in Farsi, I am told.  Most likely, these are Syrian made copies of the Fajr-3 rockets exported by Iran to the region over the last few years. While they can be set up and fired individually, the Fajr-3 is normally fitted in banks of truck mounted launchers. This makes the Fajr-3 a descendent of the Soviet Katusha rockets fielded during World War II. The Katusha rocket system was nicknamed “Salin’s Organ†because it looked sort of like a pipe organ, and as the rockets left their launcher, they made a vaguely organ-like whoosezuuooo sound. This type of weapon is more correctly characterized as an artillery rocket. It is used much like an artillery piece, but with longer range. The Fajr-3 is apparently based upon missile systems sold to Iran by North Korea in the 1980’s.
The rockets being fired into Israel are being launched by Hezbollah forces. According to reports that I read, Hezbollah has been acquiring Fajr-3 systems since Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon. This was a number of years ago, so the current situation has been building since then. Hezbollah has apparently fitted banks of Fajr-3 rockets to Isuzu trucks. They have likely three dozen or more of these systems. This makes them very mobile, and thus hard to defend against. I have no idea how many actual rockets are available, since the launchers can be reloaded. Clearly, from the number that have already been fired, they have far more than one rocket per launcher. And, they are shooting them without apparent concern for running out. This suggests either a very large supply of rockets, or very poor military planning. From what I’ve seen, either or both are plausible explanations.
The Fajr-3 itself is a 5.2 meter (17 foot) long, 240mm (9.5 inch) diameter solid fueled rocket capable of a 45 kilogram (100 pound) warhead for about 45 kilometers (28 miles). Iran has recently test fired a new improved Fajr-3 that is supposed to be rather stealthy, that is, it is hard to detect on radar. That would make it difficult to try to intercept by Israeli Patriot missile batteries. That is especially true, since the Israeli Patriots are not the upgraded ones deployed by the US Army in the second Gulf War. The difficulty in intercepting the rocket means that pretty much any Fajr-3 rockets fired will strike targets in Israel (I don’t have data on launch failures, but the technology is pretty robust). While a 45 kilogram warhead is bad if it is landing right near you, it isn’t a particularly powerful bomb. Car bombs used in the area have had substantially bigger explosives. This warhead is only a bit larger than the explosives of two or three human suicide terrorists. However, the Fajr-3 rocket’s accuracy drops dramatically with range. At extreme range, they typically land only within a circle of radius 1 kilometer of their target. That makes them low precision weapon. They are being used at extreme range in the current conflict, so they not likely to hit a target unless that target were something like a port or refinery. Even then, they are unlikely to hit exactly where aimed at those facilities. They are primarily weapons of terror. They are fired in the vicinity of a target, and everyone drops what they are doing and scrambles for shelter. The warhead is small enough that a substantial portion of the damage done is simply by the impact of the rocket structure itself. However, the warhead can be fitted with antipersonnel fragmentation warheads. Still, they are unlikely to hit in just the right place to do major damage. The suicide bombers are more likely to actually do lots of damage and kill lots of people. Still, there is a matter of just shear terror of death raining down from the sky. And, if you happen to be where one of these things is landing, it really doesn’t matter if it had actually been aimed there or not. Some uprated Fajr-3 rockets may have a range up to 60 kilometers (37 miles).
A very close cousin to the Fajr-3 rocket is the Fajr-5 rocket. The Fajr-5 5 is about the same length, but is wider, at 333mm (13.1 inch) diameter. This gives it the capability of lifting a heavier warhead, or going a farther range, perhaps over 75 kilometers (47 miles). Uprated versions are likely available. However, the Fajr-5, being wider, can not be fired from the same launch tubes as the Fajr-3. I don’t know if Hezbollah has either Fajr-5 rockets or their launchers.
At any rate, the current situation is very sad, and disturbing.
-Astroprof
Gordon R. Vaughan on February 17, 2008 at 11:41 pm: 1
Interesting, but certainly disturbing considering what it’s like to actually live within range of these things:
http://lovelyletametermaid.blogspot.com/2008/02/fajr-3.html
I don’t see how they could load too many of these on an Isuzu truck if they’re like the little ones we have here.
So are they pretty sure these are being manufactured in Iran?