Reply #71: It's not quite that simple, sir.

[TahitiNut]

Setting up a mobile launch platform of the Katyusha kind requires about 5-10 minutes for an experienced crew. This includes setting stabilizing legs and leveling the launch bed. Very slight errors in elevation and direction can make the launch useless, so care must be taken. The greater challenge comes with the "bug out" after launching. The only reason for being close to a town would be the nexus of escape routes available. They're very well-aware that the launch would be observed and triangulated. They're very well aware that the IDF has road maps and that those maps identify the most probable routes of the mobile launch vehicle away from the site of launch. Their goal would be to find (temporary) cover in about 3-5 minutes, and that would be somewhere in a circle with a 3-5 km radius, assuming a 60 kph speed. "Cover" could be a barn, grove of trees, defile (with camouflage), or cave not too far off the road.

The IDF knows there ain't no target there within about 15-30 seconds of launch. That's about how long it'd take an experienced crew to bug out after launching at a rate of 40 rockets in 20 seconds. It's fucking laughable that an airstrike could be called in on such locations with any expectation of getting the mobile launcher. It would've been a war crime on Viet Nam and it's a war crime now to target a civilian town or village when the enemy is known to have bugged out.

Regarding the "can do" attitude of troops "worth their salt" ... that's pretty much mythical except for newbies, zealots, and REMFs. It's always easy if you're not the one pounding the ground. An open 'secret' about 'Nam was that guys on patrols typically tried to avoid the "enemy." If intel said "they're over there" then guys would say "then we'll go this way." Combat gets old. Fast. Sane people don't seek it.

That's not to say the assholes with stand-off weaponry on the muscular side of an asymmetrical conflict don't get bravado and fall in love with their toys. They do. It's easy to spout bluster when you're firing the long guns from a 'safe' place.

I'd be willing to bet that the IDF is firing at targets by guess and by bad intel. It's more important to have a target than be sure it's a good one. "Those" people don't count. Period. That's the way of warfare. If combatants worried about "their" safety they wouldn't be in the military.