Strike Range: Jericho Missiles, the Answer to the Threat from Iran

Though they make sure to deny it in Jerusalem, the international media does not leave much room for doubt: the advanced missiles will be used for attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Last week, NBC advertised the IDF’s plan to attack Iran in full detail. In addition to trivial things such as an integrated aerial strike, the world was surprised to learn from the American broadcast that Israel plans to deploy what the foreign media terms “Jericho Missiles.”

NBC determined this because a preventative strike would include the launch of surface-to-surface missiles towards Iranian nuclear installations. Reports of “Jericho Missiles” have been circulating for some 40 years now since when, throughout the 1970s, Iran’s Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, went on a weapons buying spree. He wanted to purchase Pershing 1 ballistic missiles and four Polaris submarines from the United States. However, the Americans refused to sell nuclear capable weapons to the Shah, so he then turned to Israel.

A large weapons and oil deal was signed between Israel and Iran in 1978. According to the book Critical Mass by William Burrows and Robert Windrem, the Iranian leader gave Israel oil and contributed a significant sum towards Israeli missile research and development and in exchange, received Jericho 1 missiles. The deal fell apart one year later with the rise of the Ayatollah.

It is well known that irony works overtime in the Middle East, and if Israel were to attack Iran it would do so — according to foreign reporting — with 42 Jericho Missiles, the same missile system the Iranian Shah helped finance.

Nuclear Warhead

The Jericho Missile was revealed for the first time in September of 1971 in a New York Times article. According to the paper, the system (which was then called “Jordan”) possessed a range of some 500 kilometers. Half a year later, the Times reported that the Jericho missile could now carry a nuclear payload.

40 years have passed since the missile was first revealed. Newspapers and books the world over have described the missile and its capabilities, an American photographer even published the location of the missile base within Israel, and leaders around the world regard its existence as an indisputable fact and as a vital component of Israel’s “second strike capability.”

Moammar Gadhafi, for instance, convened an emergency meeting of the Arab League in 1989 in order to complain of a Jericho 2 missile falling not far from the shores of Benghazi. He referred to this occurrence as a “terrible blow to Arab honor.”

The Israeli missile garners so much attention that even the hero of the blockbuster movie Iron Man, Tony Stark, is presented as the creator of the Jericho missiles when he travels to Afghanistan to present the advanced weapon in the war torn nation. There, he is wounded and abducted by a terrorist group. Raza, the leader of the group, promises Stark his freedom if he creates the infamous missile for them.

An Impressive Technological Achievement

Despite the worldwide assertion of Israel’s capabilities in regards to surface-to-surface missiles, both long and short range, Jerusalem has never officially recognized that it has ever created the Jericho Missile.

Three months ago, Israel conducted tests on a missile system at Palmachim Airbase, only two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the direct, serious threat that Iran’s nuclear program poses to both Israel and the world. “This is an impressive technological achievement,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak claimed in a special press release. The British newspaper The Daily Mail claimed that he was referring to tests of a long range Jericho missile with nuclear capabilities. The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the issue.

Professor Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, chairman of the Israel National Council for Research and Development and missile expert, says that “Israel did not deny nor confirm what the international media presented as fact, that we are manufacturing Jericho Missiles. No one knows if we have such missiles or not. I do not want to concern myself with it.”

Tal Inbar, head of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, claims that the reports on the Jericho Missile “are not in any way reliable. There is no official Israeli document that deals with it. Long-range missiles can go long distances. The United States has ballistic missiles that can reach every corner of the world. Regarding what is happening in Israel, I cannot comment.”

Thirty Tons

According to foreign reports, Israel began developing the Jericho Missile in the beginning of the 1960s. According to the website of the Federation of American Scientists, in 1963 Israel signed a $100 million deal with Marcel Dassault, a French aerospace company, for the development of missiles.

The idea was put forward by professor Ernst David Bergmann, who is a winner of the Israel prize for natural sciences and is generally regarded as the architect of Israel’s nuclear program. According to reports, the negotiations over the missiles’ creation were led by Shimon Peres, who was then the Defense Minister.

It is written in the book Dassault — the Projects, that Peres requested a surface to surface missile system with high accuracy and a 500 kilometer range. The system was also to be launched from either portable or stationary launch pads. In 1964, the missile manufacturing facility was inaugurated in Martina En Jala. An Israeli team was in permanent residence, in order to learn the manufacturing techniques. The first test of the system was carried out in February of 1965.

40 years later, manufacturing has moved to Israel under the name of “Project 700.” Since then, according to foreign reports, Israel has created three versions of the missile, the Jericho 1, 2 and 3. These days, the foreign media is reporting of a fourth iteration of the missile in the works.

The range and capabilities of the missiles improved with every version. From an initial range of 500 kilometers, the missile today can reach ranges upwards of 7000 kilometers. According to foreign reports, the Jericho 3 is capable of carrying warheads up to 1,300 kilograms in weight, its length is 15 meters and its weight is some 30 tons at launch.

“Under normal combat conditions it is a good missile,” says Doctor Peter Pry, author of “Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal,” in a conversation from the United States. “It has a history of successful tests, it is better than Iran’s Shahab 3 missile system, but if Iran were to attach first, the Jericho 3 would not be an appropriate solution. It is reasonable to assume that in such a situation many electronic systems would be disrupted, including those of the Jericho 3.”

Hello Africa

The history of the Jericho Missile is scattered throughout the Militaristic history of the Middle East. In almost every broad military escalation in the area, it is claimed by foreign media and historians alike that the possibility of its use had arisen.

One such well known report states that in the Yom Kippur War, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan wanted to deploy submarines carrying nuclear armed Jericho Missiles due to a fear of grave threats against Israel’s existence. According to some reports, Prime Minister Golda Meir did not approve of the idea; however, there are conflicting reports claiming that Golda Meir was the one instigating their use.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, during the Gulf War in 1991 U.S. president George Bush feared that Israeli military involvement in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War would complicate things and preferred to allow Israel to use Jericho Missiles rather than land based forces.

The rocket, according to foreign reports, was a respectable portion of the close military ties between Israel and South Africa during the Apartheid. In the Book “Israeli Connection” by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, he writes that Israel provided South Africa with nuclear capable Jericho Missiles.

The Unwritten Treaty

Dieter Gerhardt, who was the commander of the South African Navy as well as a Soviet Spy, said in a newspaper interview that Israel agreed to sell South Africa eight Jericho Missiles. From documents revealed by the British newspaper The Guardian in May of 2010, it turns out that in 1975, it was Shimon Peres (then the Defense Minister) who offered Jericho Missiles to his South African colleague Pieter Willem Botha.

In the book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, New York Times editor Sasha Polakow-Suransky writes that the South African defense establishment was particularly excited from the Israeli proposition, and the military demanded that the leadership purchase the missile from Israel despite its high cost.

The code name for the deal was “Chalet” and the topic came up again in a meeting between Peres and Botha in June of 1975 in Zurich. Botha, according to Polakow-Suransky, decided to pass on the deal due to the high price, however the military ties between South Africa and Israel continued the development of the Jericho 2 with South African assistance. Some years later, when tests were carried out on the Missile, South African officials were invited to watch.

“The test was secret,” writes Polakow-Suransky, “and only a few members of the government, military officials, dignitaries and engineers who worked on the project were aware of it being carried out.” In the book Confidential: the Life of Arnon Milchan, which was released last summer, Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman write that Milchan was involved in the secret security ties between Israel and South Africa and therefore aided in forming the ties that allowed for Jericho missile tests on South African soil. Milchan said in response that he acted on behalf of Israel.

Smoke in the Sky

Throughout the years, the foreign media has revealed a number of tests of the missile. In 1987, the U.S. News and World Report wrote that Israel conducted new Jericho missile tests that were capable of three times the range of the original. One year later, the Jane’s Defense Weekly (a weekly British military journal) reported that Israel secretly launched the missile into the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1989, Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly announced to the American press that Israel had recently launched a Jericho missile. Some days before that, the Soviet Ministry of Defense claimed that the missile landed some 400 kilometers north of Benghazi in Libya.

In 1991, the Los Angeles Times wrote that Israel ran an additional test of the missile, and in 2000, the Washington Post reported that a Jericho 1 missile test fire landed close to a U.S. battleship in the eastern Mediterranean. The Pentagon was furious that Israel failed to warn them of the impending test. “Even the Russians and the Chinese give notice of their tests,” a source within the defense department said to the newspaper.

The reports continued to emerge, and in 2001 the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat reported on a successful test of the missile from Palmach air base. In 2008, a missile test was conducted and assumed by the world to be the Jericho 3 and garnered much interest in the international media.

Many of the reports on tests of the missile are reminiscent of the Zekeria settlement in the Valley of Elah. In 1997, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported on an American researcher named Harold Yoo who examined aerial photographs of a Jericho missile base near the Zekeria settlement and concluded that the base is insecure and vulnerable since anyone can effortlessly see one of the more secret sites in Israel. The photographs that Yoo examined were taken by a satellite launched by India.

“The missiles,” Yoo wrote, “are stored in natural limestone caves which are not reinforced and do not have thick doors as is customary for missiles sites in the United States and Russia. An attack by a single, small nuclear warhead would be sufficient to destroy Israel’s missile capabilities.”*

Since then, articles concerning the missiles invariably mention the Zekeria settlement. The small town, with a population of only 900, was established in 1950 by immigrants from Kurdistan. The head of the city council, Yosi Moshe said that he is not bothered by foreign press speculation about Iranian attacks on the nearby missile base. “It is not that we are Kurds who close our eyes and ears, we really don’t know what is going on. The residents of Zekeriawho mostly work in agriculture, do not talk much of the missiles and are not bothered by them. As far as we are concerned, we are left in the dark.”

Even Ozi Rubin the former head of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, which oversees the development of missile defense systems, insists on maintaining the ambiguity. “I have not heard about Jericho missiles,” he said, “I am not familiar with the project. If we have such wonders, what do we need an air force for? Why did we buy both the F15 and the F16? The strategic arm of Israel is the Air Force.”

“The Americans have never fired long range ballistic missiles on an enemy,” Rubin continues, “I do not know what Israel has. No official source has ever declared them. There is a healthy imagination in this area.”

*Editor’s Note: The original article from Jane’s Defense Weekly could not be found to confirm the content of the Harold Yoo quote.