| Country: |
Argentina |
| Class: |
SRBM |
| Basing: |
Surface |
| Length: |
6.20 m |
| Diameter: |
0.56 m |
| Launch Weight: |
1620 kg |
| Payload: |
Single warhead, 400 kg |
| Warhead: |
HE, chemical, or submunitions |
| Propulsion: |
Single-stage solid |
| Range: |
150 km |
| Status: |
Operational |
| In Service: |
1990 |
Details
The Alacran is a short-range, surface-based, solid-propellant, single-warhead ballistic missile. Argentina developed the Alacran during the 1980s as an offshoot of Condor 1: a space launch vehicle created with European technology and assistance. It is believed that Argentina used Condor 1 technologies as the basis for the Alacran.
The Alacran is approximately 6.2 m long and 0.56 m wide, with a launch weight of 1,620 kg. It has a single-stage, solid-propellant engine, and four clipped-tip control fins at its base. The accuracy of its inertial guidance system is unknown. The missile is equipped with a single warhead which can be loaded with high explosives (HE), chemical agents, or sub-munitions. It is capable of delivering a payload of 400 kg to a maximum range of 150 km (93 miles). It is reported that two alternative submunitions are available for the Alacran, either 1,020 CAM-1 sub-munitions or 176 MOR-1 antitank and anti-personal grenades.(1)
According to official Argentine sources the Alacran never reached the production stage or even a feasibility study.(2) However, the missile most likely entered service in 1990, four years after the first launch of the Condor 1. Since then, Iran might have purchased Alacran missiles or technology. At present, no evidence exists that the Alacran remains in Argentinian service. Yet there is also no evidence of its dismantlement. The missiles could be in storage. (3)
Footnotes
- Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 3.
- Global Security, “Missile Programs-Argentina,” available at http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/argentina/missile.htm, accessed on May 10, 2005.
- Lennox, 3; Nuclear Threat Initiative, “Argentina Profile,” available at http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Argentina/Missile, accessed on May 10, 2005.
