Hezbollah's missile strategy: Testing israel's costly defenses
While the IDF operation is ongoing, Hezbollah fighters continue to launch rocket attacks on Israeli territory, even using ballistic missiles. Here is Hezbollah's most powerful weapon.
Hezbollah fighters are known for bombarding Israeli territory with rocket missiles or drones. Recently, ballistic missiles have been more frequently used. Below, you can see the launch of a Qader-2 missile, which is a variant of the Iranian Zelzal-2, from a deeply concealed underground bunker somewhere in Lebanon.
Such missiles are currently unnecessary for Iran, whose estimated range is about 200 kilometres. This range is too short for Iran's needs but sufficient if launched from Lebanese territory. For example, Tel Aviv and Beirut are approximately 210 kilometres.
Zelzal-2 - A modified reincarnation of Soviet-era missiles from the 1960s
Iran has been supplying these missiles to Hezbollah since the early 2000s, according to Nicholas Blanford, who describes in his book "Warriors of God: Inside Hezbollah’s Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel," the process of acquiring these missiles through Syria, among other things.
Structurally, these are unguided ballistic missiles derived from the Soviet Luna-M. The Zelzal-2 is a missile with a diameter of 60 centimetres and a launch weight of 3,400 kilograms, carrying a warhead weighing up to 590 kilograms. Such a large payload is necessary due to the very low accuracy, which allows for targeting essentially only entire neighbourhoods in cities.
These missiles were among the first Iranian ballistic missiles developed in the 1990s, which are now practically obsolete and significantly inferior to the new arsenal. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Iran decided to "scrap them in combat" through Hezbollah's hands.
Nevertheless, these older missiles pose a significant problem for Israel, as intercepting such a missile requires engaging the Arrow-3 or David’s Sling anti-ballistic system, where a single intercept missile costs a few million dollars. This strategy is intended to deplete the supply of interceptor missiles for the Israeli missile defence shield, which is also supported by the American THAAD system and destroyers equipped with SM-3 missiles.
Iran has already attacked Israel twice with dozens of ballistic missiles, and following the last Israeli retaliation, it is expected to do so a third time with an even greater number of ballistic missiles.
