Al-Samoud 2

Al-Samoud (الصمود, alternately Al-Samed, which means steadfastness in Arabic) was a liquid-fuel tactical ballistic missile developed by Iraq in the years between the Gulf War and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The Iraqi army also developed a solid-propellant version known as Ababil-100.

Development
The missile was essentially a scaled-down Scud, though parts were mostly derived from the Russian SA-2 'Guideline' surface-to-air missile. The first test-firing was carried out as early as 1997 and was supervised by UNSCOM. The production started in 2001, and the goal was the assembly of 10 missiles each month. The project was heavily dependent of technical assistance from Poland and Russia. The Al Samoud 2 was not fully operational by 2003, but some of them had been already delivered to the Iraqi army.

Engine
The rocket engine evolved from the SA-2 design and the thrust vector controls from the Scud. The system also included an Iraqi-designed mobile launcher similar to the Al-Nida, built for the missile Al Hussein, produced by the Iraqi company Al-Fida.

Payload
The missile carried a 280 kilogram warhead that was half high explosives and half protective steel shell. The explosive charge weighed 140 kg, made of a mixture of 84 kg of RDX=60%, 42 kg of TNT= 30% and 14 kg of aluminium= 10%, the latter used as a fuse. The payload was also designed to upload different types of bomblets.

Guidance
The guidance package was assembled by cannibalizing gyroscopes from the Chinese Silkworm cruise missile. A source is cited as claiming that there were inertial and even GPS guidance systems illegally imported from Belarus, but these allegations have not been confirmed.

Banned by the UN
On February 13, 2003, a UN panel reported that Iraq's Al-Samoud 2 missiles, disclosed by Iraq to weapons inspectors in December, have a range of 180 km, in breach of UNSCR 1441. The limit allowed by the UN is 150 km.

Iraq agreed to destroy the Al-Samoud 2 long range missiles, and as mid-March 2003, a number had been destroyed. Although UNMOVIC ordered to stop its production, Iraq assembled some 20 missiles during the early months of 2003.

American forces found a cache of twelve Al Samoud missiles south of Baiji on July 21, 2003.

Operational History (March-April 2003)
A number of Al-Samoud 2 missiles were fired at Kuwait during the 2003 conflict. One of them, aimed at the Coalition Headquarters at Camp Doha, was successfully intercepted by a missile Patriot on March 27. Some debris hit buildings inside the US base. The other missiles were also shot down or landed harmlessly in the desert.

A similar development, the Al-Fahd or Ababil-100, a solid propellant version of the Al-Samoud, was also used by the Iraqi army during the invasion. The Headquarters of the 2nd Brigade, US 3rd Infantry Division, were struck by a missile of this kind on April 7, while the Brigade's main force was conducting an incursion 15 km north, well inside Baghdad. Three soldiers and two foreign reporters were killed in the blast. Another 14 soldiers were injured, and 22 vehicles destroyed or seriously damaged, most of them Humvees.