Condor (Argentine missile)

This article is about the Argentine/Middle Eastern Condor/Badr missile, for the US Navy's air-to-surface missile see AGM-53 Condor.

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.

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, and then Iraq^[4] (the Iraqi version was called BADR-2000),^[5] however it was discontinued in the early 1990s by President Carlos Menem because of political pressure from the United States.^[6] 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.^[7]

In 1997, the Argentine Air Force reported to the US Congress that it still possessed two of the missiles that were to be destroyed.

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.^[7][8]

See also

• Argentina and weapons of mass destruction

References

External links

• (Spanish) Condor 1-AIII