This article is published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through Sep 30, 2024. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here.
A Fadi surface-to-surface missile launched by Hezbollah.
Iran-backed Hezbollah revealed a family of long-range unguided rockets that the group said were launched into Israel in a Sept. 22 barrage aimed at an Israeli Air Force base and a missile factory near the northern city of Haifa.
The attack included an unspecified number of 70-km (43-mi.)-range Fadi 1 rockets and 100-km-range Fadi 2 rockets, Lebanese newspaper Al Mayadeen reported, citing videos released to the newspaper by Hezbollah.
The rockets lack a guidance system for precision strikes, but are used as area weapons to target large facilities. The rockets, which Hezbollah claimed entered service 18 years ago, feature an 83-kg (183-lb.) warhead on the Fadi 1 and a 170-kg warhead on the Fadi 2.
The Israeli government said most of the Hezbollah rockets were shot down, but 10 people were injured by either surviving rockets or debris from those that were intercepted.
The area targeted by Hezbollah includes the Ramat David fighter base and industrial facilities of Rafael and Elbit Systems.
The Hezbollah barrage on Sept. 22 included 150 rockets, cruise missiles and uncrewed air vehicles, according to the Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center. The Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 strikes targeted the Jezreel Valley and Haifa areas, the center reported. The missiles are named after a dead Hezbollah operative.
The Hezbollah missile attack came in response to a series of devastating blows inflicted on Hezbollah by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) since Sept. 17, including a mass cyberattack that exploded thousands of the group’s beepers and walkie-talkie radios, killing more than 60 operatives and wounding hundreds more.
Israeli Air Force fighters also bombed a building in a Beirut suburb on Sept. 20, killing Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and more than 50 others, including dozens of civilians. The IDF also struck more than 400 more Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, focusing on rocket and missile launch systems.
Despite those attacks, Hezbollah’s rocket and missile launch capability may have escaped significant damage, according to the Alma thinktank.
“The operatives of these systems can maintain functional continuity and carry out extensive and prolonged fire at various ranges in Israel,” Alma reported in a Sept. 22 blog post.
Related Content
