Saudi Arabia in search for better ballistic missiles

Saudi Arabia in search for better ballistic missiles

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DF-3-Ballistic-Missile-1S

The Saudis are usually shy of displaying their weaponry, so last year’s military parade was something of a novelty. For the first time ever the Saudis displayed their Chinese made, long range ballistic missiles. The Dongfeng-3, or DF-3 (US designation: CSS-2) is a single-stage, liquid-fuel ballistic missile, first developed by China in the 1960s. Its estimated range is 2,500 km, it has a 2,000 kg warhead, and it is known to suffer poor accuracy.

According to Israeli sources Saudi Arabia has had the DF-3s since the late 80’s and is now, as a result of the Iranian nuclear aspirations and its expansionist stance in the Gulf region, looking to purchase more advanced ballistic missiles.

The parade, last year, came to mark the end of what was billed as its largest ever military exercise. According to Janes the DF-3s were delivered to the Saudis by China back in March 1988. The missiles delivered had conventional warheads and estimates as to their number vary between 30 and 120.

Saudi television footage of the parade at the northeastern Hafr al-Batin Airbase, showed two missiles that had DF-3 written on them in Latin script. The missiles were mounted on the same towed erector launchers seen in photographs of Chinese DF-3s. This kind of launcher can only travel on paved surfaces, but provides an adequate level of mobility for firing from the prepared launch pads at Saudi ballistic missile bases.

There is speculation that the Saudis are in the process of replacing its DF-3s with DF-21s. Some corroboration to this can be deduced from a photograph of the Saudi deputy defense minister presented with missiles models, two of them models of the Chinese DF-21 (US designation CCS-5). The DF-21 is a two-stage, solid-fuel, medium-range ballistic missile developed in the late 1970s. It has a range of up to 2,500 and carries a nuclear warhead. The models appearing in the picture, however, seem to have the pointier nose of a conventional warhead