VIII. Israeli nuclear forces

Chapter:

11. World nuclear forces

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2017

Author(s):

Shannon N. Kile, Hans M. Kristensen

While Israel continues to maintain its long-standing policy of neither officially confirming nor denying that it possesses nuclear weapons, it is widely believed to have built a small undeclared nuclear arsenal. Declassified US and Israeli Government documents indicate that Israel began building its stockpile of nuclear weapons in the early 1960s, using plutonium produced by a heavy-water reactor at the Negev Nuclear Research Centre (NNRC) near Dimona.¹ It is estimated that Israel has approximately 80 nuclear weapons (see table 11.9) Of these, approximately 30 are gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft and the remaining 50 weapons are for delivery by solid fuel, two-stage Jericho II medium-range ballistic missiles. A three-stage Jericho III intermediate-range ballistic missile, which some sources describe as having intercontinental range—that is, a range exceeding 5500 kilometres—remains under development but its status is unknown.²