Wonder why the Israelis thought their ship had been hit by a drone last week — when it turned out to be a radar-guided missile instead? Or why the crew of the Hanit corvette didn’t use their countermeasures to protect themselves? Simple: the Sabras knew that Hezbollah had been playing with drones; they had no idea that the terrorist group had such a sophisticated missile in their arsenal. It’s one of a number of ways that the “power and sophistication” of Hezbollah’s arms “has caught the United States and Israel off guard,” the Times reports. “Officials in both countries are just now learning the extent to which the militant group has succeeded in getting weapons from Iran and Syria.“
The missile that hit the Hanit was a C-802, an Iranian-made variant of a stealthy, turbojet-powered, Chinese weapon. It’s “considered along with the US ‘Harpoon’ as among the best anti-ship missiles” in the world, GlobalSecurity.org says.
“Iran began buying dozens of those sophisticated antiship missiles from the Chinese during the 1990s,” the Times notes. “Until Friday, however, Western intelligence services did not know that Iran had managed to ship C-802 missiles to Hezbollah.“
Now that the Israelis know, it’s influencing their choice of targets to hit. The C-802 was most likely “fired it from a truck-mounted launcher cued by a coastal radar installation,” Situational Awareness says. So “Israel has stepped up its attacks against coastal radar sites, as any sort of surface-search set would be able to provide data for the initial launch.”
After launch, the missile takes care of itself with its own inertial guidance system and onboard radar seeker. Since the launchers are mobile, the trucks carrying them could scoot after firing. And we all know how notoriously difficult it can be to locate mobile units, even when you have lots of reconnaissance assets.
The terrorists’ more traditional weapons, like Katyusha rockets and Fajr-3 missiles, have contained surprises, too. “In the past, wed see three, four, maybe eight launches at any given time if Hezbollah was feeling feisty,” one unnammed official told the paper. “Now we see them arriving in large clusters, and with a range and even certain accuracy we have not seen in the past.“
70 Katyushas were fired at Israel “within the space of an hour” on Wednesday afternoon, Ha’Aretz writes. Israel is responding by sending small group of ground troops into Lebanon, and by striking targets in Beruit — including ones in the Christian part of town.
The Times says that “while Iranian missile supplies to Hezbollah, either by sea or overland via Syria, were well known, officials said the current conflict also indicated that some of the rockets in Hezbollahs arsenal including a 220-millimeter rocket used in a deadly attack on a railway site in Haifa on Sunday were built in Syria.”
Officials have since confirmed that the warhead on the Syrian rocket was filled with ball bearings a method of destruction used frequently in suicide bombings but not in warhead technology.
“Weve never seen anything like this,” said one Western intelligence official, speaking about the warhead.
Conflicts Forum’s Mark Perry, on the other hand, isn’t as alarmed as most about Hezbollah’s weaponry. {Joe Katzman says that’s because the guy is a terrorist shill.} Perry declares that the militia only has a handful of sophisticated and long-range missiles. Check out his All Things Considered interview here.
UPDATE 1:43 PM: “Israeli military officials have warned that the next Palestinian uprising could be ‘a ballistic intifada,’” the Washington Post reports.
(Big ups: Umansky)
UPDATE 7:13 PM: The Jerusalem Post is reporting that “IAF fighter jets dropped over 20 tons in bombs late Wednesday night on a Hizbullah bunker, possibly the hiding place of the group’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, in the Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp in southeast Beirut. It was still unclear who was in the bunker at the time and what their fate was, but IDF sources said the bunker was totally destroyed and that all that was left was a crater.”
Mark Perry would be expected to say that — his organization shills for Hezbollah, and before that he serviced Yasser Arafat whom he describes as his personal friend. He isn’t a reliable source for anything except the Hezbollah line.
See:
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008805.php
C-802 missiles are pretty sophisticated for a group like Hezbollah considering their traditional weapons of choice have been unguided rockets.
I’m not completely surprised by the volume of rockets they have managed to light off though. The Soviets used to mount Katyushas on double-sided racks, 8 deep on the backs of trucks. With all the rubble and debris in Southern Lebanon, its has be easy to fire Katyushas in quick order.
I am surprised by the potential large arsenal they have been able to amass. 100 122mm rockets just don’t grow on trees, which makes you wonder how much the Israelis knew about stockpiles of that size.
Haninah, your comment reinforces my nagging feeling that this particular conflict has been building for a long time. I’m not at all surprised to hear that Israelis have been expecting some sort of barrage. It does stretch credulity to believe Hezbollah wants this many rockets simply for deterrence (or pride, or some such).
I’m interested, though, in the many other reasons Israel chose now for such a strong response. Israel has faced missile attacks and kidnappings before; if the country has been watching the missile buildup for so long, the pressure to act should have certainly been mounting commensurately. However, the military waited and seems to have taken the kidnappings as an excuse to bombard the entire country. I don’t know a ton about Middle East politics, but, in retrospect, something along these lines seems inevitable since Hezbollah was elected into Lebanon’s government.
Hezbollah’s place in the Lebanese government gives some justification for acting against the entire country–state sovereignty and responsibility and all that–since by electing Hezbollah, the country on some level endorsed their actions. Combine that relatively new situation with a new prime minster (and defense minister, I think?), increasing aggression from Hamas, and jitters over the new Iranian leadership and nuclear program, and the kidnappings provided a perfect opportunity to attempt a reshaping of the status quo–hopefully in Israel’s favor.
Such a strong Israeli military response also jives with what you said about Israelis being disappointed that their military hasn’t done more to prevent missile launchings. While geopolitical foreign policy concerns are almost certainly primary, domestic Israeli politics have to play some role in this as well.
I guess I have a couple questions: First, do you think the status quo was untenable in the short term? Second, would there have been a more advantageous time for Israel to act, given the convergence of all these factors so recently?
Hi Tech, Low Tech, US and Israeli pilots are a bunch of Baby Killers! Who, when they are flying are tough guys but when they are shot down become Homos! Add to the list the Coward Hezbollah Missile and Rocket boys too.
“Took it out with a heat-seeker, Dylan. That’s pretty sophistocated tech for a bunch of half-assed mountain boys.“
“Guess they’re getting better equipped all the time.“
Suprisingly sophistocated technology? Missing soldiers? Very hot summer? Obviously, the Israelis need to watch out for the Predator.
“I don’t know a ton about Middle East politics“
You made this clear by saying:
“Hezbollah was elected into Lebanon’s government.“
Hezbollah was not elected to Lebanon’s govt, and there is no justification for the scale of Israeli attacks on civilian, economic and infastructural targets.
You may be thinking about Hamas’ political wing getting elected to head the Palestinian authority which is entirely separate and in no way justifies the ongoing slaughter in Lebanon.
For up to date information untainted by propaganda please see http://www.gnn.tv.
Pearse: Hezbollah has two ministers in the lebanese
government … where do you get off posting propaganda references?
–gh
From the next article (“DOOD KATYUSHAZ R COMIN 2 U”):
>FEMA is working on a similar system here in the U.S., with a twist. FEMA’s text messages
>will “tell you to get to a television or radio because something unfortunate has happened that
>you need to know about.” Sounds like Cellact’s straightforward alerts make a little more sense.
What the… Why does US gets slammed when Israel is given a standing ovation for similar techniques and technology? I can’t believe FEMA’s text message system only gives limited information, but I believe FEMA has something SUPERIOR than Israel. FEMA also plans to use the Internet to access and cut into (in other terms, hack) PCs giving emergency stress calls. I would guess there would be people slamming FEMA for cutting into everyone’s PC that looks like hacking, but would give a standing ovation if it was Israel doing the same. There is something wrong here.
Pearce, not only are there two Hezbollah ministers in the Lebanese government, there are also 23 Hezbollah MPs.
Geez, lets do this one by the numbers.
It is obvious that the anti-ship missile that struck the sa’ar 5 corvette Hanit was not a parafin fueled turbojet powered c-802 with a 165 kilogram HE warhead. The c-802 is an oth missile that requires more infrastructure to fire and target successfully than the Hizb-e-allah armed wing have at their disposal. Furthermore the warhead of the c-802 is capable of sinking a vessel of 10 kilotons, the sa’ar 5 masses only ~1.3 kilotons and though critically damaged was not sunk.
From the distance of the Hanit from the lebanese shore and the level of damage suffered by the Hanit it is more likely that the antiship missile that crippled the israeli corvette was an iranian kosar missile. This missile is a modified c-701, the range is enhanced slightly the warhead remains the same but the electro-opitical tracker is replaced with a millimeter search radar. The kosar can be launched off the back of an toyota truck at a target within visible range. The kosar comes in a sealed airtight container and can be stored for long periods of time until needed. The damage suffered by the Hanit most closely matches the size of the warhead fielded by the kosar.
Also i’ve read various odd reports about a high-low attack against the hanit by multiple missiles and that the hanit’s defense systems were turned off to prevent fratricide; both are false.
Firing a missile into a high arc above a vessel will not in anyway degrade the ability of the passive ecm package from doing it’s job against sea-skimmers. Likewise the anti-missile defense systems will not in anyway splash friendly aircraft, the range of the phalanx gun coupled with the operating altitude of jets armed with pgms makes this an impossibility as evidenced by the fact that a nearby idf vessel had it’s ecm pakage and anti-missile phalanx gun operational. The cambodian vessel that was destroyed was too far at sea for a lucky lock on by an errant shore launched missile, it was most likely destroyed by accident by the idf who may have mistaken it for a threat source, a la the uss liberty
At the end of the day, it looks as if the iranians have modified the c-701 enough to be able to defeat the anti-missile systems of the the idf, which are heavily reliant on begged, borrowed and stolen u.s. technology; i, and every u.s. ship captain who’ll have to transit the straits of hormuz or even come close to the persian gulf, wonder to what degreee the iranians have modified other weapons in their arsenal, namely the c-802.
Pearse says “Hezbollah was not elected to Lebanon’s govt” And then offers as his impeccable authority something called the Guerrilla News Network.
That’s odd. The rest of the world remembers very clearly that Hezbollah has members elected into the current Lebanese government. Here’s the Council on Foreign Relations report, for instance:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8195/lebanon.html
first of all
for all of you who said hisballah was elected to the lebanese government.
we do not elect cabinet members.the president and the prime minister appoint them.of course after mp discussions and debates but in no way their view is mandatory.
second: after all the war that happened you still look down to the military techniques and technology of iran and hisballah and think that this is all they got,simply because that’s all you saw.who told you that it’s all they got.
third: terrorism is by all laws and conventions defined as violence against innocent civilians.
hisballah attacked israeli troops and out posts on the day of the kidnapping and any news about firing rockets at the neighboring north towns of israel is simple propaganda because i was in marwa7in which is visible from zarit that day.it was said to be bombed but nothing like that appears to be the case.
they kidnapped SOLDIERS not only this time but all the times after 1990 because they were aware of the conventions of war after the civil war in lebanon.They only kidnap to exchange with Kidnapped lebanese CIVILIANS by israel who’s majority didn’t do anything against israel.
after israel bombed some i think 11 bridges and killed 26 civilians on the first day and after nasrallah’s speech at 8pm did the rocket launching and towns begin
this is nothing but self defence.
israel kills no massacres people day after day civilians and is not recognized once as terrorist.
i tell you something any rational person with enough political knowledge can say hisballah is less a terrorist than any other of their enemies.
Israel killed 1200+ civilians most are women and children and old people.
why because the others were fighting them and i dare any news agency or intelligence reports to contradict this by pure fact.
i dare you to bring me a figure less than 70% of men who were killed at fighting age if they were not killed in combat.which in any country is honor.
hisbollah protected us and still does from israel because you wish to be on the offensive and backed by the US to be super power in the region.
don’t just call them terrorists simply because of self defense.this is very degrading to the lebanese people as a whole being called mountain boys and peasants.
by all israel itself declared its defeat on the mountain boys’ hands who are by the way the most educated with university degrees and well mannered people in this country and i tell you that by experience
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