Israeli military men conducted a successful launch of Jericho-3 intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday. The test was carried out at the Palmahim air base, the Irish Times said. At the same time, officials with Israel Defense Forces said that they had conducted the tests of a new missile engine in the morning of November 2. The launch of the missile could be seen from Ashkelon to Tel Aviv, Newsru Israel said. According to publications in the media, the three-stage missile is capable of delivering a 750-kilo warhead to a distance of more than 10,000 kilometers. If the reports about the range of Jericho-3 are true to fact, then it means that the missile can reach such cities as Tokyo and New York. The distance between these two cities and Tel Aviv makes up a bit more than 9,000 kilometers.
According to Western sources, Israel passed the Jericho-3 missile into service in 2008. However, the work on the project still continues, MissileThreat.com says.
According to the publication, the takeoff weight of the missile makes up 29 tons. The missile is 15.5 meters long. The website says that in addition to the 750-kilo nuclear warhead, a Jericho-3 is capable of carrying multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles.
Even though the Jericho-3 is designed for deep underground basing, it will be possible to launch the missile from mobile platforms, including railway platforms. The high speed of the missile makes it practically invincible for interception.
The Palmahim airbase is a range ground for testing various missile systems including Hetz and Jericho. Palmahim is the base for the Hetz-2 missile defense system. In addition, Israel uses the base as a spaceport.
