122mm GRAD rocket effects in Benghazi

[formercia]

http://www.livestream.com/libya17feb/video?clipId=pla_0dd5342d-9f76-49d7-b2b4-4c915ca3ee88&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

If you will notice the small size of the crater indicating the fuzes were set to detonate instantaneously. The warhead was of the anti-materiel type. It consists of a HE charge, coils of notched steel bands and a thin outer casing. On impact, it sends a shower of fragments in a 360 degree arc at about chest height. It acts like a 20 Kilo hand grenade.

These rockets were meant to inflict maximum civilian casualties.

Revised for better link

[riverwalker]

1. the man who shot that film was killed today

that was Mo Nabbus of Al Hurra Libya shot by a sniper. Age 28 with a pregnant wife.

[formercia]

2. He was probably targeted for being too persistent

G has his agents about. A good deed never goes unpunished.

He is a hero in my book, not for carrying a gun, but for telling the truth.

[Igel]

3. Intended to inflict maximum casualties.

We hear from other theatres that grads are notoriously inaccurate in their aim.

Still, they have their defenders. Hamas and Hezbollah, for instance, are routinely let off the hook by a lot of people simply because the rockets can't be aimed very well at all.

Personally, I think that's one reason they shouldn't be used. Then again, they're cheap and have basically flooded the low-cost-munitions market.

[formercia]

4. The 122 wasn't meant to be a precision weapon.

If you will notice the launcher fires them in a spread, so that, on impact, the salvo will cover the largest area and still inflict the largest number of casualties and damage. Whatever we might think of the weapon, it is cheap and can easily be adapted for improvised launch. All you need is a couple of stout sticks, an inclinometer to set the firing elevation and a simple electrical source to ignite the motor. It only takes three people to carry the weapon to the launch point. One to carry the warhead and two to carry the motor.