English: A still image taken from footage provided by a Tornado GR4 aircraft, which destroyed a number of Qadhafi-regime rocket launchers and missiles in May 2011 as part of the NATO mission Operation Unified Protector, to protect Libyan civilians from attack.

Two Tornado GR4 aircraft struck the weapons at a location south of Sirte in a co-ordinated attack based on intelligence gathered earlier by other RAF aircraft.

Video taken from the Tornado’s Litening III targeting pod clearly shows a number of large secondary explosions after Paveway bombs struck the targets.

A previous mission had identified and gathered images of a possible site of interest. These images were analysed by specialists from the RAF Tactical Imagery Wing, who identified a large number of FROG-7 rocket launchers and several SCUD canisters.

Once the imagery experts had identified the targets they could be briefed to NATO pilots operating over Libya. An RAF flight on May 5 targeted both the FROG-7 launchers and the SCUD canisters using a number of Paveway IV bombs - a highly accurate weapon that uses both laser designation and GPS for guidance. The aircrew carried out a full assessment before the attacks to ensure that collateral damage was kept to a minimum.

After the strike the Tornadoes assessed that 20 FROG-7 launchers and significant number of SCUD canisters were either completely or partially destroyed, ensuring that these weapons cannot now be used to attack defenceless people.

The FROG-7 can fire rockets up to 70km and would pose a serious threat to civilians if used against an urban area. The SCUD tactical ballistic missile can strike targets up to 300km nd can carry a one-tonne warhead. Like the FROG-7, SCUD is not a precision weapon but poses a serious threat because of the size of the warhead. Both weapon types are mobile and could have been moved by regime forces to threaten civilians in any Libyan city.

• Organization: RAF
• Object Name: SCUD_Strike_After
• Category: MOD
• Supplemental Categories: Operations, Theatres, Libya, Equipment, Aircraft, Offensive, Tornado
• Keywords: SCUD, Ellamy, Operation Unified Protector, Targetting, Screengrab, Pod, Royal Air Force, RAF, Equipment, Aircraft, Jet, Fighter, Offensive, Tornado, GR4, Explosion, Litening, Weapon, Reconnaisance
• Country: Libya