Improved Qassam 2 Rocket Fielded In Gaza
By Alon Ben-David, JDW Correspondent, Tel Aviv

[With thanks to MidEastweb www.mideastweb.org ]

Insurgent forces have deployed an improved version of
the indigenously produced Qassam 2 unguided
surface-to-surface rocket, dubbed 'Nasser 3', in the
Gaza Strip.

Israel Defence Force (IDF) sources believe that the
Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)
manufactured the rocket.

A salvo of Nasser 3 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip
towards the southern Israeli town of Sderot on 28 June
killed two civilians: the first Israeli fatalities of
a Palestinian rocket attack.

Since November 2001, some 350 Qassam rockets have been
fired from the Gaza Strip at targets in Israel,
causing few casualties and little damage. The Qassam
rocket was initially perceived as an ineffective
improvisation that had the potential to become a more
significant threat.

Like its predecessor, the 2.2m Nasser 3 is capable of
carrying a 5kg warhead to a range of 9km. However, the
Nasser 3 has a standard explosive warhead combined
with metal fragments and a standard fuze. "The new
warhead is much more powerful than that of the
improvised Qassam 2," an IDF source told JDW.
"Equipped with a standard fuze, rather than an
improvised one, the new warhead guarantees detonation
on impact, overcoming the Qassam 2's main flaw."

The IDF believes that most of the Nasser 3's
components are manufactured in the Gaza Strip. The
rocket is cased in a 110-120mm-diameter steel water
pipe, containing some 20kg of improvised solid
propellant, usually manufactured from available
potassium nitrate fertiliser and powdered sugar. "It
appears there was some improvement in the propellant's
mixture, which we cannot yet determine," an Israeli
Police explosive ordnance disposal specialist told
JDW.

The Nasser 3 has four stabilising fins welded to the
casing and is launched from rails mounted on a bipod.
The rocket's engine is ignited by an electric fuze,
sometimes triggered by a timing mechanism.

"It is hard to speak of the Qassam rocket in general,
as there are many variants and different production
lines," the specialist said. "The Palestinians are
continuously experimenting with different propellant
mixtures and warhead ingredients."

However, an IDF source added: "We believe that the
Palestinians have received shipments of standard
explosives and fuzes, probably smuggled under the
Egyptian border in Rafah, and that these enabled the
Qassam's improvement. It seems that while Qassam 2 had
many failures, both in launch and at impact, the
Nasser 3 is much more effective."

To date, some 20 Nasser 3 rockets, painted in green
and red, have been fired from Gaza; all are believed
to have been manufactured by a single Hamas workshop.
The IDF has repeatedly operated against suspected
Qassam workshops in Gaza with both air strikes and
ground operations. "It appears to be impossible to
completely prevent the firing of Qassam rockets," said
Brig Gen Shmuel Zakai, the IDF commander in Gaza.

The IDF is using both ground and airborne observation
platforms combined with Elbit's upgraded
Raytheon-built TPQ-37 artillery-locating radar to
detect and attack Qassam teams.

"The only solution to the Qassam threat is to have a
presence at all launching grounds," a senior IDF
source told JDW. "We have learned in our long years of
fighting in Lebanon that no matter how much air
superiority you have, the only thing that can suppress
rocket attacks is to have control on the ground.

"Qassam teams, very much like the Lebanese Hizbullah's
Katyusha teams, either spend only seconds at the
launch site or use a timing mechanism, and are very
hard to detect."