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Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East

Longest-Range Cruise Missiles Deployed in the Middle East

Current WMD Middle East Information

Please note this section is no longer being updated. For the latest Middle East WMD information, please visit these links:

Country Profiles
Information on nuclear, biological & chemical weapons and missile programs, with details on capabilities, facilities, chronologies, and imports/exports.

CNS maintains these Country Profile databases for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).

Updated: April 2006

Chart

This chart includes only the longest-range cruise missile deployed by Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey and Yemen. The United States deploys the RGM-109C Tomahawk cruise missile on ships in the waters of the Middle East region, but the Tomahawk's 1,700km range and 454kg payload exceed the parameters of this chart.

Sources:

This chart summarizes information available from public sources. Data were drawn primarily from: David A. Fulghum, "Cruise Missile Threat Spurs Pentagon Research," Aviation Week and Space Technology Review, 7/14/97, pp. 44-45. Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems Issue 24, 5/97. Centre for Defence and International Security Studies, "Master Tables," [Online] http://www.cdiss.org.

Additional sources consulted: Aviation Week & Space Technology and The Association for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems International, "1997-98 International Guide to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997). Jane's Defence Weekly. Cape Times. Saturday Argus. South African Press Agency (SAPA). IDR Dispatches. Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization (SIBAT), Israel's Defense Sales Directory, 1997/98 (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1997). Anthony H. Cordesman, "Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East: National Efforts, War Fighting Capabilities, Weapons Lethality, Terrorism, and Arms Control Implications" (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2/98). Ian O. Lesser and Ashely J. Tellis, Strategic Exposure: Proliferation around the Mediterranean (Santa Monica: RAND, 1996) [Study prepared for the United States Army]. Bates Gill, Silkworms and Summitry: Chinese Arms Exports to Iran and US-China Relations (Asia and Pacific Rim Institute of the American Jewish Committee, 1998). "Saudi Arabia," Middle East Military Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 2/5/05), [Online] http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/balance/saudia.pdf. "Exocet AM.39 / MM.40," Federation of American Scientists, 1/3/99, [Online] http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/exocet.htm. "CSS-C-2-Silkworm/ HY-1 / SY-1 / CSS-N-1 Scrubbrush / FL-1 Flying Dragon," Global Security.org, [Online] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/hy-1.htm. "Egypt," Middle East Military Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 2/5/05). "Iran," Middle East Military Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 1/06). "Syria," Middle East Military Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 3/4/05). "AGM-65 Maverick," Federation of American Scientists, 1/3/99, [Online] http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/agm-65.htm. Raytheon, Missile Systems of the World, (AMI International, 1999), pp. 214, 218, 228. "Israel," Middle East Military Balance (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 3/05).


Originally prepared by Michael Barletta and Erik Jorgensen, May 1998;
Updated by Sammy Salama and Alexis Zeiger, April 2006.

© Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies. April 2006


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