| title (item) | field_cer_web | field_cer_navbox | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Rushdie |
In 1999, Iraq initiated a major project of upgrading the remaining stock of V-601 missiles for the S-125/SA-3 SAM system, and for making their launchers mobile. This resulted in the replacement of booster-stages with those from old V-755 and V-759 missiles, and the development of a new, twin-rail launcher installed on the chassis of a light Iveco truck, shown on the left side. Shown to the right is the final anti-aircraft project completed before the invasion of 2003: a Project Rushdie launcher. Essentially, each of these consisted of the gun carriage from a Czechoslovak-made M53 cannon, with two tubes from a BM-21 launcher. Aiming was undertaken visually and with the help of radars: for example, in 2001, the Iraqis developed a ground-based radar from the N010 radar of a MiG-29 destroyed in an earlier Allied air strike – the emissions of which initially prompted the US and the British crews underway over Iraq into the wrong assumption that the Iraqis were operating Russian-made S-300 (ASCC/NATO codename ‘SA-10 Grumble’) SAM systems. (Artwork by David Bocquelet and Tom Cooper)