Condor (Argentine missile)
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2013) |
The Argentine Condor missile was a multinational space research program started in the 1970s. It involved significant contract work being performed by German company MBB (now a group within Daimler AG), but later developed into a ballistic missiles program.
Condor I
The original Condor[1] had little military capability but helped build expertise later used for the Alacrán missile program.[2] The Alacrán program developed a functional short-range ballistic missile.
Specifications (Condor I)
- Length: 8 metres (26 ft)
- Maximum diameter: 70 centimetres (28 in)
- Stages: 1
- Fuel: HTPB
- Guidance system: inertial
- Apogee: 300 kilometres (190 mi)
- Range: 100 kilometres (62 mi)
- Payload: 500 kilograms (1,100 lb)
Alacrán (Condor IAIII)
The Alacrán missile was a short range ballistic missile derived from the Condor Missile Program.
Derived from the Condor IAIII prototype, the Alacrán missile had shorter stabilization fins, an inertial guidance system, and a 1000CAP1 cluster warhead.
Specifications (Condor IAIII - Alacrán)
- Length: 8 metres (26 ft)
- Maximum diameter: 70 centimetres (28 in)
- Stages: 1
- Fuel: HTPB
- Guidance system: inertial
- Apogee: 100 kilometres (62 mi)
- Range: 115 kilometres (71 mi)
- Warhead: 1000CAM1 cluster munition warhead, 500 kilograms (1,100 lb)
Condor II
During and after the 1982 Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), France (which supplied missiles) placed an arms embargo on Argentina, causing the Argentine Air Force, under the command of Ernesto Crespo, to develop its own medium-range missile in the Condor II[3] program.
This program was undertaken in close collaboration with Egypt,[4] and then Iraq[5] (the Iraqi version was called BADR-2000),[6] however it was discontinued in the early 1990s by President Carlos Menem because of political pressure from the United States.[7] The missile was developed in Falda del Carmen, Córdoba Province. The designer and creator of the missile was MIT-trained engineer Miguel Vicente Guerrero.
The Condor missile had a range of 800 km to 1,000 km[8] and a 1000CAP1 500 kg cluster munition warhead.
In 1997, the Argentine Air Force reported to the US Congress that it still possessed two of the missiles that were to be destroyed.[citation needed]
Condor III
There have been reports of a Condor III program. The Condor III would have an increased range to some 1,500 km (930 mi) with the same payload as the Condor II.[8][9]
See also
References
- ^ "Condor 1". Astronautix.com. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
- ^ "Alacran". Astronautix.com. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
- ^ "Condor 2". Astronautix.com. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
- ^ "Egypt's Missile Efforts Succeed with Help from North Korea". Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. 1996. Archived from the original on 2016-01-23.
- ^ "Argentina | Country Profiles". NTI. Archived from the original on 2013-12-26. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
- ^ "Badr-2000 - Iraq Special Weapons". Fas.org. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
- ^ "Condor Missile Programme (Hansard, 5 March 1996)". Hansard.millbanksystems.com. 1996-03-05. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
- ^ a b "Egypt Missile Chronology" (PDF). Nti.org. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
- ^ "Misil Condor III y Cohete tronador II (y algunos mas)". Taringa.net. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
External links
- (in Spanish) Condor 1-AIII