As the War of the Cities (February-March 1988) progressed, Iraqi missile forces grew concerned about the accuracy of the Al-Hussein missile and of the operational limitations imposed by the system's single range profile (the military was simply launching the missile at full range). These concerns were expressed to the Al-Hussein design team as the Iran-Iraq War came to a close.

Project 144 believed that poor accuracies were the result of airframe instability during re-entry. To counter this problem, engineers decided to shorten sections of the airframe; these modifications, in turn, required considerable modifications to the missile, including the re-arrangement of guidance and control components and changes to the position and design of the air bottles.

Following these modifications, two so-called "Short" al-Husseins were tested on 2 January 1990; Project 144 described the tests as failures. Experimentation continued—with a focus on changes in the placement of stiffening rings—with another flight-test took place on 8 April 1990 with similar unsatisfactory results.

Given this relatively poor performance, as well as certain operational problems with the "Short" warhead, both the missile forces and Iraqi engineers were displeased with the missile. Nevertheless, the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and subsequent US response demanded that all potential military assets be made available. Thus, the "Short" Al-Hussein became part of the combat inventory; to determine performance under east-west launch conditions, two "regular" and one "short" missile were flight-tested on 2 December 1990.

In total, Iraq produced just over 20 of the "Short" al-Husseins.

	Updated October 2003