Hard Facts.

Stockpile

The State of Israel has never made public any details of its nuclear capability or arsenal. The following is a history of estimates by many different reputable sources on the size and strength of Israel's nuclear arsenal.

* 1967 (Six Day War)- 2 bombs[40]; 13 bombs[41]

* 1969- 5-6 bombs of 19 kilotons yield each[42]

* 1973 (Yom Kippur War)- 13 bombs[43]; 20 nuclear missiles plus developed a suitcase bomb[44]

* 1974- 3 capable artillery battalions each with 12 175 mm tubes and a total of 108 warheads;[45] 10 bombs[46]

* 1976- 10-20 nuclear weapons[47]

* 1980- 200 bombs[48]

* 1984- 12-31 atomic bombs;[49] 31 plutonium bombs and 10 uranium bombs[50]

* 1985- at least 100 nuclear bombs[51]

* 1986- 100 to 200 fission bombs and a number of fusion bombs[52]

* 1991- 50-60 to 200-300[53]

* 1992- more than 200 bombs[54]

* 1994- 64-112 bombs (5 kg/warhead);[55] 50 nuclear tipped Jericho missiles, 200 total[56]

* 1995- 66-116 bombs (at 5 kg/warhead)[57]; 70-80 bombs[58]; "A complete Repertoire" (neutron bombs, nuclear mines, suitcase bombs, submarine-bourne)[59]

* 1996- 60-80 plutonium weapons, maybe more than 100 assembled, ER variants, varitable yields[60]

* 1997- More than 400 deliverable thermonuclear and nuclear weapons (an intentionally high estimate)[61]

* 2002– Between 75 and 200 weapons[62]

[edit] Delivery systems

Israeli military forces possess land, air, and sea based methods for deploying their nuclear weapons, thus forming a rudimentary nuclear triad, although it should be noted that the Israeli triad is mainly short to medium ranged, the backbone of which is submarine launched cruise missiles and medium ranged ballistic missiles, with Israeli Air Force tactical aircraft fulfilling the role normally played by strategic bombers in the Russian and American strategic deterrent. [63]

[edit] Missiles

Main article: Jericho missile

Ernst David Bergmann was the first to seriously began thinking about a ballistic missile capability and Israel test-fired its first Shavit II missile in July 1961.[64] It was not until 1963 when Israel actually put a large-scale project into motion, spending $100 million to jointly develop and build 25 medium-range missiles with the French aerospace company Dassault. The Israeli project, codenamed Project 700, also included the construction of a missile field at Hirbat Zacharia, a site west of Jerusalem.[65] The missiles that were first developed with France became the Jericho I system, first operational in 1971; they were updated to Jericho II in the mid 1980s and Jericho III in the mid 2000s.

[edit] Aircraft

* Lockheed Martin F-16I Sufa ("Storm")
* McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 Eagle Baz 2000 (A/B/C/D/E)

[edit] Marine

In 2003 it was reported that Israel's three Dolphin class submarines were armed with US Harpoon missiles and tipped with nuclear warheads,[66] giving Israel a secure second strike capability.[67]

[edit] Other

Seymour Hersh reports that Israel developed the ability to miniaturize warheads small enough to fit in a suitcase by the year 1973.[68]

Jericho III is thought to have been in service since mid-2005. With a payload of 1,000 - 1,300 kg it has a range of 6,500-7000km[2][3], and probably significantly greater with a payload of 350kg (one Israeli nuclear warhead). This gives Israel nuclear strike capability against Africa, Europe, and most of Asia.

On 17 January 2008 Israel test fired a multi-stage ballistic missile believed to be of the Jericho III type reportedly capable of carrying "Special warheads".[2]

One tenth of the Holocaust's Jewish victims were Hungarian Jews, resulting in a total of over 550,000 deaths. The Hungarian Horthy regime deported those 20,000 Jews from annexed Transcarpathian Ukraine who weren't able to account for Hungarian citizenship in 1941 to Kamianets-Podilskyi in the German-occupied Ukraine, where they were shot by the German Einsatzgruppen detachments. Hungarian army and police units killed 3000 Jews and Serbs in Novi Sad in January 1942. Horthy resisted German demands for mass deportation of Hungarian Jews until March 1944, when Nazis occupied Hungary. By the beginning of July 1944, 437,000 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz, including those 20,000 who were refugees from the neighboring countries. The mass deportations stopped in July when world leaders appealed to Horthy, following the escape from Auschwitz of Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, whose story about the mass murder taking place inside the camp was published in June by the BBC and The New York Times. In October 1944, the Horthy regime was replaced by the fascist Arrow Cross Party led by Ferenc Szálasi. Seventy thousand Jews were forced on a death march to Austria — thousands were shot on the way, and thousands more died of starvation and exposure.[41]

A Theocracy possessing nuclear capabilities with a sense of entitlement...very scary.