Al Hijarah (missile)

The al-Hijarah missile was an Iraqi liquid propelled inertial Short-range ballistic missile, it was also a Scud missile and considered an upgrade of the al-Hussein missile equipped with chemical warheads.[1][2] It was developed by 1990[3] and was first used in the Persian Gulf War where the al-Hijarah missile would release poison clouds and kill personnel on grounds as well as ignite oil wells.[1][2] One al-Hijarah missile was confirmed to have been fired at Israel during the Gulf War where one landed near Dimona, it was revealed that the missile had a concrete filled warhead.[1]

al-Hijarah
Type	Short-range ballistic missile
Place of origin	Iraq[1][2][3][4]
Specifications
Payload capacity	100-300 kg[3][4] chemical warhead
Propellant	Liquid-propelled[4]
Operational range	700-900 km[3][4]
Guidance system	Inertial
References

Characteristics

The al-Hijarah missile warhead was probably filled with chemical weapons and biological weapons possessed by Iraq at that time like anthrax, botulinum toxin, aflatoxin, sarin, cyclosarin and VX nerve agent.[2] The al-Hijarah missile being a version of the al Hussein also suffered from flight instability and improper guidance.[4] Iraq itself at that time was almost fully indigenous when it came to ballistic missile components and only lacked the ability to locally manufacture Gyroscopes.[1][2]

References

1. "Al Hussein/al-Husayn". Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
2. "Al Hussein/al-Husayn". GlobalSecurity.org. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019.
3. "Ballistic Missiles in Iran's Military Thinking". Wilson Center. Archived from the original on 22 May 2020.
4. "Iraq". NTI. Archived from the original on 31 October 2019.