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.
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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.
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.
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 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]
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]
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