Jericho (missile)
Jericho (Hebrew: יריחו, romanized: Yericho) is a general designation given to a loosely-related family of deployed ballistic missiles developed by Israel since the 1960s.
[1] The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US concluded that the Shavit could be adapted as an ICBM carrying a 500 kg warhead over 7,500 km.
Subsequent to the declaration and disarming of the South African nuclear program,[3] the RSA series missiles were offered commercially as satellite launch vehicles, resulting in the advertised specifications becoming public knowledge.
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.
That day, in keeping with his deal and warning that prevented a preemptive Israeli attack on gathering Arab armies,[14] President Nixon ordered the commencement of Operation Nickel Grass, a U.S. airlift to replace all of Israel's material losses.
[17] A request from Israel for 1,100 mile (1,770 km) range Pershing II medium range ballistic missiles was rejected by the United States for inclusion as part of a military assistance incentive package offered in 1975 during negotiations over transferring the Sinai from Israeli to Egyptian control as part of a US-brokered peace deal.
It has a 1,000 kg payload, capable of carrying a considerable amount of high explosives or a 1 Megaton yield nuclear warhead.
[23] Researcher Seth Carus claims that, according to an Israeli source, the decision to operationally deploy the Jericho-2 was only made after 1994, several years after the Scud attacks had ended and a cease fire and disarmament regime were in place.
[24] Raytheon Technologies, quoting Soviet intelligence archives, showed them believing the Jericho-2 to have been fully developed weapon in 1989, but did not indicate when it was available for deployment.
[31] According to an official report that was submitted to the U.S. Congress in 2004, it may be that with a payload of 1,000 kg the Jericho III gives Israel nuclear strike capabilities within the entire Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and almost all parts of North America, as well as large parts of South America and North Oceania.
[33] Israel's intercontinental ballistic missile launchers are believed to be buried so deeply that they would survive a first strike nuclear attack.
Israeli Ministry of Defense officials said that the 2008 test launch represented a "dramatic leap in Israel's missile technologies".
[29] In 2019, a successful test launch was conducted by Israel of a rocket, which was subsequently referred to as the "Jericho 4" by Israeli mass media.
[38][39] 2024 article provides more details: "... the Jericho 4, a three-stage missile, whose capabilities will include the possibility of carrying fragmentation warheads.
"[40] The Jericho II/Shavit SLV was also license produced in the Republic of South Africa as the RSA series of space launch vehicles and ballistic missiles.
Development reached its height in 1992 a year after nuclear renunciation with 50–70 companies involved, employing 1300–1500 people from the public and private sector.
According to Al J Venter, author of How South Africa Built Six Atom Bombs, these missiles were incompatible with the available large South African nuclear warheads, he claims that the RSA series being designed for a 340 kg payload would suggest a warhead of some 200 kg, "well beyond SA's best efforts of the late 1980s."
