The Missile Front

By Kathleen Adams

Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3)

The PAC-3 system includes a radar station that detects, identifies and tracks targets in the sky and guides the PAC-3 missile to the target; a mobile control station with which ground forces monitor incoming missiles and fire the PAC-3; a launching station that holds 16 PAC-3 missiles

SADDAM'S MISSILES

Iraq has actively pursued production of shortrange missiles, legal under the U.N. resolutions. But it may also have two dozen or more enhanced-and prohibited-Scud missiles left over from 1991 and potentially able to deliver chemical or biological warheads as far away as Tel Aviv, Riyadh or Tehran

MISSILE RANGES

Al-Hussein 375 to 400 miles (600 to 650 km) Iraq re-engineered the Scud-B, which has a range of 185 miles (300 km), to produce the Hussein. During the Gulf War, Iraq fired almost 80 al-Husseins at Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel

Scud-B 185 miles (300 km) In the 1970s and 1980s Iraq imported from the Soviet Union these surface-to-surface, mobile, liquid-fueled, short-range ballistic missiles of limited accuracy. Iraq launched hundreds of them at Iran in the 1980s

Al-Samoud 93 miles (150 km) The U.N. only allows Iraq missiles with a range of less than 93 miles (150 km), so Iraq still develops the Samoud, essentially a scaled-down Scud. This program allows Baghdad to develop technology that could be used to make longer-range missiles

NOTE: Missile ranges are calculated from Iraq's border Sources: Department of Defense, Department of State, Globalsecurity.org Federation of American Scientists