Jericho missile
Jericho is a general designation given to the
Israeli medium-range
ballistic missiles (MRBM). The name is taken from the first development contract signed between Israel and
Dassault in
1963. Like much connected to the
nuclear weapons program of Israel exact details are difficult to find in the public domain.
Jericho I was first publicly identified as an operational system in late
1971. It was
13.4 m long,
0.8 m in diameter, weighing
6.5 tons. It had a range of
500 km and a
CEP of
1,000 m, and it could carry a payload estimated at
400 kg. It was intended to carry a nuclear warhead. Initial development was in conjunction with
France, Dassault provided various missile systems from 1963 and a type designated
MD-620 was test fired in
1965. But French co-operation was halted by an arms embargo from January
1968. Work was continued by IAI at the Beit Zachariah facility and the program cost almost $1 billion up to
1980. Despite guidance problems it is believed that around 100 missiles of this type were produced.
The system was updated from around
1985, it was identified as the
Jericho II, a solid fuel, 13 ton, two-stage system. There were a series of test launches into the Mediterranean from
1987 to
1992, the longest at around
1,300 km, mostly from the facility at
Palmachim, south of
Tel Aviv. Again, the qualities of the system are unclear but it is considered by some sources as equivalent to the US
MGM-31 Pershing, the
American government having provided considerable technical assistance to the Israelis in the
1970s.
It has been proposed that the Jericho II forms the basis of the three-stage, 23 ton
Shavit NEXT satellite launcher (similar to the South African RSA-3), first launched in
1988 from Palmachim. From the performance of Shavit it has been estimated that as a ballistic missile it has a maximum range of about 4,500 km with a limited 250 kg payload.
It has been claimed that
Jericho IIb or
Jericho III systems also exist or are in development.
*
List of missiles*
Information on Shavit*
Israel Missile Update - 2005
