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A quick question for someone who actually has knowledge of artillery….
Random missiles are being routinely launched into your territory from a general direction….
Why wouldn't the 'standard' military reponse be near instantaneous counter battery fire? By the time rockets reach apogee you'd think you'd have a firing solution. (6-7 seconds) In particular if you were looking for targets, computers would make it almost an automated response. Furthermore, there's a cause and effect; ie “fire rockets take incoming 120mm”
Perhaps I'm mistaken about telemetry interception or naive about politics.. probably both..
bI think the problem is that they can be somewhat remote fired…even if quick counter-battery fire hits the launch site, the “technicians” are a safe distance away and unharmed, to launch more missiles. Many missiles can be launched from inexpensive or expedient “launchers”…even a slab of concrete from that building you bombed yesterday can suffice in some cases as a “launch pad”.
So…while you are hitting the empty lot that I just launched my missiles from, I still got the missiles off…then while you are gathering intel on the effects of your counter-battery fire, I'm launching the next couple of missiles from the rubble of a building three blocks over…lather, rinse, repeat.
Semper Fi!
ScottBryan,
The problem is similar in nature – but not identical – to the SCUD threat during Desert Storm – mobility of the launch platforms and distance between target and launch site.
Addressing launch platform mobility and reaction time, as a general rule of thumb the smaller the rocket the more mobile and / or expendible the launch platform. The Hamas home grown rockets have a range of about 18km and are a fire and forget. In otherwords, as soon as it's airborne the crew is running or driving away. Because of such a short flight duration the reaction time for counter battery fire is about 15 seconds before impact. This assumes that you have a counter battery position close enough to the trajectory / impact site to calculate return fire.
Some of the newer rockets being employed by Hamas have ranges of 35 – 40 km. The launchers are significantly larger and not something you want to loose to Israeli counter battery fire. The launchers are truck mounted units with an accompanying fire control truck. But these newer rockets have a significant advantage. The nominal range of modern field artillery is about 30km, effectivley putting them out of range of conventional counter battery fire.
It would seem with the larger rockets and range there is a longer window of opportunity for an Israeli response, and indeed there is – 45 sec to 1 min prior to impact. But because of the increased range there is also a much larger area Hamas can target, complicating the Israeli response as they now have more targets to cover with the same number of artillery units. The greater range of the rockets which increases the number of potential targets more than off-sets the Israeli advantage of longer response time and longer dismanteling time post launch.
I've included an excellent article on the rockets being used by Hamas if you are interested in further info.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas-qassam.htm
Nick
I believe the Israelis have near-constant UAW coverage of the area, which might give them significantly better response to rocket fire. I wonder how much the presence of such constant surveilance changes the response and usage of indirect fire?
You could, perhaps, observe a militant group fire a rocket, and then launch a missile from the UAV directly onto the position in less than a minute. Also, I would wager that Hamas isn't firing rockets off from too many varied positions as the rockets are stored in caches and it seems are fired from very close by, often right outside a school or mosque.
Before listening to last night's news broadcast I would have agreed with you Candice. I really didn't see why Israel would want to launch a ground offensive, as it would seem almost impossible to extract themselves once they did that. However, the ground incursion has had a significant impact on the number of rocket launches. The news was comparing the number of launches month over month. The ground response has decreased the number of rocket launches from a few hundered a month to sporatic firings over several days. This is a fairly good indication that air assets alone are unable to supress the rocket attacks.
The Israelis have one of the best UAS programs in the world, but the Gaza launch locations are located in the cities, which are densly packed with buildings. I'm assuming the buildings block LOS from the UAV making it difficult to spot, identify and track objects from a distance. The firing positions are camoflaged making overhead identification prior to launch difficult at best. Once firing starts the position is easy to fix, but at that point you are back to less than a few minutes to respond – and the rockets are already away, damage done.
Here is an interesting article from the Jerusalm Center for Public Affairs written right about the time the cease fire was put in place last year. Although a bit dated, the information is still relavent. It provides an excellent summary of events and provides some good maps of firing locations and targets along with the number of rockets fired per month.
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=283&PID=0&IID=2049
Excellent hard info, Nick. I find it interesting to see how countries develop their doctrine for things…and how even lower-tech military organizations are able to operate against superior ones.
I am not surprised that the ground troops are hindering the Hamas rocket attacks. While air and artillery assets can pound the area once it is identified, unless they stay on location all the time, they are unlikely to nail the launchers. If they stay on location, they are likley to not see the launch in the first place since the Hamas boyos will simply hold fire. In the end, the ground troops crawling all over your position will do wonders to defeat your ability to wage war. Pretty much the same tactic that has been used since man first learned how to throw a rock rather than swing a club.
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