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

AGM-53 Condor

In 1962, the U.S. Navy issued a requirement for a long-range high-precision air-to-surface missile. The missile, named the AGM-53A Condor, was to use a television guidance system with a data link to the launching aircraft similar to the system of the then projected AGM-62 Walleye.-Development...

.

The Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 Condor missile program started in the 1970s as a multinational space research program with significant contract work being performed by German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 company MBB

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm was a German aerospace company formed as the result of several mergers in the late 1960s. Among its best-known products was the MBB Bo 105 light twin helicopter...

 (now a group within Daimler AG).

The original Condor had little military capability but was used to build expertise that went into to the Alacrán program which was a functional short range ballistic missile. After the 1982 Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

's problems with French missiles (France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 placed an arms embargo during the conflict), the Argentine Air Force

Argentine Air Force

The Argentine Air Force is the national aviation branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. , it had 14,606 military and 6,854 civilian staff.-History:...

, under command of Ernesto Crespo

Ernesto Horacio Crespo

Ernesto Horacio Crespo is an Argentine retired Brigadier General and former Chief of Staff of the Argentine Air Force....

, decided it was time have its own medium-range missile, and started the Condor II program.

This program was driven in close collaboration with Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, and then Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, but in the earliest 1990s Carlos Menem

Carlos Menem

Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...

 discontinued it because of political pressure from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The missile was developed in Falda del Carmen, Córdoba Province. The designer and creator of the missile was the M. I. T. master of science and engineer Miguel Vicente Guerrero.-

It is believed that Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 has assumed the Condor II project around 1995. Extensive shifts in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 have obscured the exact status of the Condor II program, but it was clearly the most promising of the Libyan missile programs.

In 1997 the Argentine Air Force

Argentine Air Force

The Argentine Air Force is the national aviation branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. , it had 14,606 military and 6,854 civilian staff.-History:...

 reported to the US Congress that it still possessed 2 of the missiles that were to be destroyed.

Reports of a Condor III program are extensive. The Condor III would have an increased range to some 1500 km (932.1 mi) with the same payload as the Condor II. It was however likely that this program ended with the fall of the Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

regime in Iraq.

Specifications

• Length: 10.50 m
• Diameter: 0.80 m
• Weight: 5,200 kg
• Warhead: Single (HE or chemical), 450 kg
• Range: 900 km
• Propulsion: 2-stage solid/liquid