By Ivan Kesic
The Lebanese movement, which joined Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 8 last year, has deployed its never-seen-before weapons systems in recent weeks much to the surprise of the enemy.
The previously unused ballistic missiles and rocket artillery have been put into operation that have dealt painful blows to the Israeli military. New underground missile bases have also been unveiled.
It has effectively debunked claims that Hezbollah's advanced missile arsenal was significantly destroyed in the Israeli airstrikes in September. The arsenal is very much intact and growing.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue resisting the Israeli regime until it ends its aggression on Gaza and Lebanon and recent operations by the movement have already made the Tel Aviv regime jittery.
Fateh-110
The Fateh-110 is a single-stage short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), developed in the early 2000s as a modified version of the unguided Zelzal-2, with the addition of control and guidance systems.
Although generally classified as an SRBM, it is one of the longest-range, largest and most destructive missiles in Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, along with the Scud.
It is similar in size and shape to the older Zelzal-2, with almost the same diameter of 616 mm, but at 8.8 meters it is 0.8 meters longer and with additional sets of fins.
The missile has an additional set of four movable triangular fins on its warhead for maneuvering in the terminal phase of flight, and newer generations have another set of triangular fins, near the main clipped delta fins.
The total mass of the missile is 3450 tons, most of which is solid fuel, while the warhead has a mass of 500 kilograms and can be single-staged or contain submunitions.
Hezbollah gives a range of 300 kilometers and analyzes different generations from 200 to 400 kilometers, which means that they can target every part of the Zionist entity from southern Lebanon.
Older generations have the circular error probability (CEP) of 100 meters using a combination of inertial and satellite guidance, and newer generations include optical guidance that reduces the CEP to 10 meters.
With stated precision, warhead payload and terminal speed of Mach 4.5, the missile is able to target fixed land and sea targets, enemy gathering points, command centers, missile sites, ammunition dumps, radars and other desired targets.
It can be launched from fixed or mobile platforms, and Hezbollah launches it mainly from fortified underground silos, as it is one of the most valuable missiles in the movement's arsenal.
The Israeli regime earlier claimed that Fateh-110 warehouses in southern Lebanon were completely destroyed in bunker buster bombing this September, however, Hezbollah pulled off a surprise on November 6, effectively refuting Zionist claims.
During that strike, the Tzrifin military training base near Ben Gurion International Airport was hit, resulting in damage to a Boeing 777 aircraft and flight cancellations.
Jihad-2
The Jihad-2, like the Fateh-110, is a single-stage solid-fueled tactical SRBM, about which there is currently not much technical information.
It is reportedly an upgraded version of the Jihad-1 and missiles are named after Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of legendary Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was also martyred in the January 2015 assassination in Quneitra, Syria.
The Jihad-1 missile was put into use on May 12, when it targeted the Israeli Zebdine outpost in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.
It has a reported length of 4 meters and a warhead mass ranging from 120 to 400 kilograms, while the Jihad-2 has a range of 250 kilometers and a 250-kilogram warhead.
This range allows the Jihad-2 missile to reach most of the enemy's key military sites in 80 percent of the occupied Palestinian territories, all the way to Dimona in the Negev desert.
The high-explosive warhead is sufficient to destroy well-fortified enemy sites, large buildings and facilities, key infrastructure, and gatherings of occupation troops.
The Jihad-2 was put into operative service on November 5 when it targeted the Israeli Maale Golani barracks, the 810th Hermon Brigade headquarters.
According to the photos and videos that have been published, the Jihad-2 shares similarities with the Fateh-110 in the warhead shape and fins, and it likely is a derivative with a reduced booster.
This has removed the only drawback of one of Hezbollah's most advanced rockets, its relatively large size and mass, which makes it easier to transport, store, and launch during guerrilla warfare.
Like newer generations of the Fateh-110, it has a biconically shaped warhead and three sets of almost identically arranged and shaped fins, indicating great accuracy.
Other new weaponry
A few weeks ago, Hezbollah also unveiled a variety of other military equipment and underground facilities for launching rocket artillery and ballistic missiles.
The massive Imad 5 missile complex, revealed on November 3, contains well-equipped long subterranean tunnels and large mobile rocket launchers.
The footage shared by the Hezbollah media displayed their fighters riding their bikes through a forested area, followed by scenes of walking through a tunnel leading to an underground facility.
It also showed the fighters preparing advanced missiles for launch from their positions within the underground facility, as a blast door is seen opening above them.
The footage ended right before the missile launch, with excerpts from a speech by martyred leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in which he vowed: "We will never be weakened, we shall never be afraid, and we shall never surrender."
This is the fifth in a series of displayed Imad missile complexes, named after Hezbollah martyred leader Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, and the previous one was shown in mid-August.
On October 19, Hezbollah presented the M80 rocket system, available in both mobile and stationary configurations, featuring 24 launch slots.
The M-80 shell is an 80 mm caliber rocket, with a length of 95 centimeters and a mass of 10 kilograms, primed with 4,750 individual steel pellets.
It can effectively target enemy troops located up to 3.3 kilometers from the launch point, creating a highly lethal fragmentation effect with a kill radius of 35 meters.
Three days later, the Islamic resistance presented the Nasr-2 artillery rocket, with a caliber of 302 mm, a total mass of 650 kg, a warhead of 140 kg and a CEP of 5 meters.
It is an improvement over the earlier Nasr-1 version, which has a smaller warhead of 100 kilograms and a shorter range of 100 kilometers.
On November 7, Hezbollah also demonstrated the operational use of the Malak-1, a mobile multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS), which seems to be faster and more long-range than older Katyusha platforms.
The footage of the Malak-1 shows it operating from the southern Lebanese forests against enemy positions.
As Hezbollah's media relations officer, Mohammed Afif, said at a press conference on Monday, the claims by Israeli officials and media about the depleted missile stock of the Lebanese resistance movement are "mere fabrications," which he said "our missiles will answer."
"The enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village, and the epic of Khiam Fortress stands as a living testament to heroism," he told reporters, adding that the Zionist regime will not win the war through air superiority, bombings, or killing civilians, including women and children," Afifi said.
"We are prepared for a prolonged war with the occupation at all levels, whether at the front (border) or within," he hastened to add.
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