XDA

Yesterday Palestinians fired 6 homemade rockets (called Qassam rockets) into the Israeli town of Sderot. That's not really news; Palestinians fire Qassam rockets into Israel every day. What was newsworthy was that the rockets wounded a 20 something man and killed a 57 year old woman. Qassams are usually more nuisance than deadly (but they have killed 9, all civilians, since June, 2004). Still no nation could just sit by doing nothing while under cross border rocket attack. The question is what specifically to do. Israeli soldiers have struck back at the rocket squads in Gaza, killing approximately 400 (many collateral civilians) since June, 2006. Mere retaliation seems not to deter, however. Is there a technological fix?

American counterbattery radar, that is, computer aided radar posts at an artillery battery, can detect a rocket flight (or artillery shells in flight for that matter), plot the angle and distance for a return salvo of 155mm artillery fire and put rounds onto the rocket launch site just seconds after the rocket hits. That might not be soon enough. The Palestinians could light the fuse on the rockets and then sprint out of the area ahead of the return fire. What would be better is real time detection by a camera carrying drone of preparation to fire the Qassams and then counterbattery fire before the rocket launch, but that appears to be a matter largely of luck. Destruction of the rocket making metal shops also would appear to be a sound policy, but that too seems difficult and a matter of constant surveillance, Palestinian betrayal or luck.

There appears to be no good solution now that Israeli forces have pulled out of Gaza and the Palestinians have decided to bombard Israel ineffectively rather than live in peace (quelle surprise). So outgoing rocket launches and incoming retaliatory raids seems to be the future in Gaza as far as the eyes can see.