The Burkan is a heavy, accurate, and very short-range missile used by the Lebanese Hezbollah in its operations against Israel. How did this particular missile become a headache for Israel?
A question posed by the Israeli website Calcalist, which was answered with a report by its writer, Nitzan Sadan, in which he explained the idea behind the Burkan missile, which he considers the simplest, slowest, and most complex missile in Hezbollah’s arsenal.
First, Sadan explains that the “Burkan” missile is a type of composite weapon, which can be built from parts of other missiles in approximately one hour of work, with almost no need to use welding, and it belongs to a category of weapons called heavy-weight missiles.
The writer adds that this missile is completely different from any other artillery missile, as regular standard missiles rely primarily on fuel in order to fly as far as possible, but their explosive charge is relatively small.
He cites as an example the famous Katyusha rocket, which has a range of up to 40 kilometers, with a bomb weighing up to 25 kilograms. The launch of a Katyusha depends on the quantity: the standard Katyusha launcher (BM21) contains 40 tubes that it empties within 20 seconds, thus achieving small damage, but only over an area. Wide.
In contrast, heavy missiles work in the opposite way: their explosive charge is very heavy – from 100 to 500 kilograms – and is about 60 percent larger than its engine, and is intended to cause maximum damage at a certain point.
The writer emphasizes that this type of missile is not a new invention. In World War II, the Nazis used a similar missile whose range did not exceed 4 kilometers. Israel also developed a version of it that had a solid casing and was designed to penetrate fortifications, with an explosive charge of 250 kilograms, and its range did not exceed 1 kilometer. One of them was the one that caused the killing of Abdel Moneim Riad, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army, on March 9, 1969.
He points out that, with the passage of time, heavy-weight missiles became simpler and simpler. Today, they are nothing more than a barrel of explosives with a collision emitter that activates the bomb upon impact. An engine from a Grad missile or similar is mounted on it, and a tail is attached to it to achieve stability during flight. Then It is placed in a tube and released.
According to the writer, Hezbollah discovered these missiles in the Syrian war, perhaps around 2012, and they were exactly what it was looking for, as they were an easy and economical tool to disrupt Israeli army positions.
The writer pointed out that heavy missiles solved all the problems in one fell swoop, with them no longer necessary to infiltrate and expose soldiers to danger. It is enough to place two missile platforms on a truck, place them in a barn in the village, then take them out and launch them when needed and return them within a minute. Such a missile costs less. From $400, but the damage it causes to the site it infects is enormous.
Disadvantages of the heavy volcano missile
The writer mentioned that there are also disadvantages to these missiles: the volcano is not only in the shape of a solar heater, but it also flies like a solar heater, as it can be seen in the air, as if it is so slow that it does not want to fly.
The writer stated that it is these primitive missiles in particular that complicate the work of the Iron Dome and often evade its missiles, as the Iron Dome missile battery works through a distinctive radar that recognizes the movement of the object in the air, and understands where it is heading, what its speed and angle are, and thus its path is determined, which is This allows us to understand which missile poses a threat to a residential area or a specific force, by calculating the meeting point and thus sending an interceptor missile to it.
The writer stated that this system works wonderfully, even if the attacking missile is very fast, moving on a low trajectory, or even evading a little.
But the volcano is not a regular missile. It flies a very short distance, and Hezbollah members fire it from short distances and from platforms hidden in the area, which makes it take about 10 seconds from launch to impact. Therefore, an Iron Dome interceptor cannot always reach the rendezvous point and hit it in time.
How to stop Hezbollah missiles
The writer revealed that what can completely stop the volcano is the laser, or the “Magne Hour” system developed by Rafael, which is an energy weapon that can destroy the target the moment it is discovered through radar waves that move at the speed of light, just as the laser itself is light, and so on. Hit will be inevitable, and the missile will explode in the same place or spin around and fall as it ascends. But the problem is that this system is still under experimentation and the Magn Or projects must be completed and become operational, and this will take some time.
The author concluded the report by answering the question: What do we do in the meantime? Explaining that Hezbollah fighters must be stopped on their way to their launch sites, by marching teams and planes with powerful cameras that comb the sky, and Northern Command observers that scan the bush area, and therefore when they see anything human, it should be bombed and neutralized, In this way, several Hezbollah cells were eliminated and several volcano missile launching pads were destroyed, according to the writer.
But Sadan warns – at the same time – that the border is long, and Hezbollah is not surrendering, which is why it seems that Israel will be forced to expel Hezbollah beyond the range of these missiles through a direct military operation.