September 8, 2008

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Condor 2

Country:  Libya
Associated Country:  Egypt, Argentina, Libya, Iraq
Class:  SRBM
Basing:  Surface based
Length:  10.50 m
Diameter:  0.80 m
Launch Weight:  5200 kg
Payload:  Single warhead, 450 kg
Warhead:  HE, chemical
Propulsion:  2-stage solid/liquid
Range:  900 km
Status:  Terminated

Details

The Libyan Condor 2 program traces its lineage back to the Argentinean space program in the 1970's. This program was most likely a façade for Argentina to develop ballistic missiles under the guise of pure research. The Condor-1 was a research platform used by Argentina for testing missile designs as well as the prototype for the Alacran missile that was later developed.

Shortly after the development of the Alacran, work on a medium-range missile began. The Condor 2 program was in close collaboration with Egypt and then Iraq. Argentina attempted to further develop the Condor 2 but was halted by increasing pressure from the United States to dismantle the project.  It is assumed that this justification is the front for the inability of the government to continue funding the project. In 1991 Argentina began dismantling their Condor 2 project but it is uncertain whether they were fully destroyed. Libya is believed to have assumed the Condor 2 project around 1995.


Extensive shifts in the Middle East have obscured the exact status of the Condor 2 program, but it is clearly the most promising of the Libyan missile programs. If ever operational the missile would have a payload of approximately 450 kg that could be used with either high explosives, chemical or biological weapons or even a nuclear bomb similar to Pakistani designs. The range would be some 900 km (559 miles) with an unknown accuracy.1

The Condor 2 is some 10.5 m long with a diameter of 0.8 m. The launch weight is 5,200 kg and it is a combination solid/liquid (first/second stage) fueled rocket. It is presumed to be used with an inertial guidance system, but a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system could easily be added.2

Unconfirmed reports of a Condor 3 program are extensive. The Condor 3 would have an increased range to some 1,500 km (932 miles) with the same payload as the Condor 2. It is however likely that this program ended with the fall of the Hussein regime in Iraq.3

Footnotes

  1. globalsecurity.org, "Libyan Missiles," available at http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/libya/missile.htm, accessed on June 3 2008.
  2. Dinshaw Mistry, Containing Missile Proliferation, (University of Washington Press, 2003) 75-77.
  3. Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems 42 (Surrey: Jane's Information Group, July 2005), 93.

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