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How Wikipedia rewrote the Jericho (missile) article

Q: How has Wikipedia's Jericho (missile) article changed?

Wikipedia's first sentence called it "general designation given to the israeli medium-range ballistic missiles". Today it says "general designation given to a loosely related family of deployed ballistic missiles developed by israel since". We saved the article's opening at 6 moments between 2005 and 2025, and every claim links the exact revision.

The opening as it read in 2005

Jericho is a general designation given to the Israeli medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM).¹ The name is taken from the first development contract signed between Israel and Dassault in 1963 . Like much connected to the nuclear weapons program of Israel exact details are difficult to find in the public domain.² Jericho I was first publicly identified as an operational system in late 1971 . It was 13.4 m long, 0.8 m in diameter, weighing 6.5 tons . It had a range of 500 km and a CEP of 1,000 m, and it could carry a payload estimated at 400 kg . It was intended to carry a nuclear warhead. Initial development was in conjunction with France , Dassault provided various missile systems from 1963 and a type designated MD-620 was test fired in 1965 . But French co-operation was halted by an arms embargo from January 1968 . Work was continued by IAI at the Beit Zachariah facility and the program cost almost $1 billion up to 1980 . Despite guidance problems it is believed that around 100 missiles of this type were produced. The sytem was updated from around 1985 , it was identified as the Jericho II, a solid fuel, 13 ton, two-stage system. There were a series of test launches into the Mediterranean from 1987 to 1992 , the longest at around 1,300 km, mostly from the facility at Palmahim , south of Tel Aviv . Again, the qualities of the sytem are unclear but it is considered by some sources as equivalent to the US MGM-31 Pershing , the American government having provided considerable technical assistance to the Israelis in the 1970s . It has been proposed that the Jericho II forms the basis of the three-stage, 23 ton Shavit NEXT satellite launcher (similar to the South African RSA-3), first launched in 1988 from Palmachim. From the performance of Shavit it has been estimated that as a ballistic missile it has a maximum range of about 4,500 km with a limited 250 kg payload. It has been claimed that Jericho IIb or Jericho III systems also exist or are in development.³

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16097154.

The opening as it stood in 2010 14 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Jericho is a general designation given to the Israeli ballistic missiles . The name is taken from the first development contract signed between Israel and Dassault in 1963, with the codename as a reference to the Biblical city of Jericho . Like much connected to the nuclear weapons program of Israel , exact details are difficult to find.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 369715396.

The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Jericho is a general designation given to the Israeli ballistic missiles . The name is taken from the first development contract for the Jericho I signed between Israel and Dassault in 1963, with the codename as a reference to the Biblical city of Jericho . As is true for most Israeli unconventional weapons systems, exact details are highly classified though there is observed test data, public statements by government officials, and details in open literature especially about the Shavit satellite launch vehicle. The later Jericho family development is related to the Shavit and Shavit II space launch vehicles believed to be derivatives of the Jericho II IRBM and which preceded the development of the Jericho III ICBM. Additional insight into the Jericho program is given by the South African series of missiles which the RSA-3 are believed to be licensed copies of the Jericho II/Shavit and the RSA-4 used part of these systems in their stack with a heavy first stage, after the declaration and disarming of the South African nuclear program the RSA series missiles were offered commercially as satellite launch vehicles where the advertised specifications became part of the public knowledge. The civilian space launch version of the Jericho, the Shavit has been studied in an air launched version piggybacked on a Boeing 747 similar to a US experimental launch of the Minuteman ICBM from a C-5 Galaxy .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 645922680.

The opening as it stood in 2020

Jericho is a general designation given to a loosely related family of deployed ballistic missiles developed by Israel from the 1960s forward. The name is taken from the first development contract for the Jericho I signed between Israel and Dassault in 1963, with the codename as a reference to the Biblical city of Jericho . As with most Israeli unconventional weapons systems, exact details are classified, though there are observed test data, public statements by government officials, and details in open literature especially about the Shavit satellite launch vehicle. The later Jericho family development is related to the Shavit and Shavit II space launch vehicles believed to be derivatives of the Jericho II IRBM and that preceded the development of the Jericho III ICBM . The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US concluded that the Shavit could be adapted as an ICBM carrying 500 kg warhead over 7,500 km. Additional insight into the Jericho program was revealed by the South African series of missiles, of which the RSA-3 are believed to be licensed copies of the Jericho II/Shavit, and the RSA-4 that used part of these systems in their stack with a heavy first stage. Subsequent to the declaration and disarming of the Nuclear programme of South Africa , the RSA series missiles were offered commercially as satellite launch vehicles, resulting in the advertised specifications becoming public knowledge. The civilian space launch version of the Jericho, the Shavit, has been studied in an air launched version piggybacked on a Boeing 747 similar to a U.S. experimental launch of the Minuteman ICBM from a C-5 Galaxy .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 962819493.

The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023

Family of Israeli ballistic missiles Jericho is a general designation given to a loosely-related family of deployed ballistic missiles developed by Israel starting in the 1960s. The name is taken from the first development contract for the Jericho I signed between Israel and Dassault in 1963, with the codename as a reference to the Biblical city of Jericho . As with most Israeli unconventional weapons systems, exact details are classified, though there are observed test data, public statements by government officials, and details in open literature especially about the Shavit satellite launch vehicle. The later Jericho family development is related to the Shavit and Shavit II space launch vehicles believed to be derivatives of the Jericho II IRBM and that preceded the development of the Jericho III ICBM . The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US concluded that the Shavit could be adapted as an ICBM carrying a 500 kg warhead over 7,500 km. Additional insight into the Jericho program was revealed by the South African series of missiles, of which the RSA-3 are believed to be licensed copies of the Jericho II/Shavit, and the RSA-4 that used part of these systems in their stack with a heavy first stage. Subsequent to the declaration and disarming of the Nuclear programme of South Africa , the RSA series missiles were offered commercially as satellite launch vehicles, resulting in the advertised specifications becoming public knowledge. The civilian space launch version of the Jericho, the Shavit, has been studied in an air launched version piggybacked on a Boeing 747 similar to a U.S. experimental launch of the Minuteman ICBM from a C-5 Galaxy .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178192183.

The opening as it stood in 2025

Family of Israeli ballistic missiles Jericho ( Hebrew : יריחו , romanized : Yericho ) is a general designation given to a loosely-related family of deployed ballistic missiles developed by Israel since the 1960s. The name is taken from the first development contract for the Jericho I signed between Israel and Dassault in 1963, with the codename as a reference to the Biblical city of Jericho . As with some other Israeli high tech weapons systems, exact details are classified, though there are observed test data, public statements by government officials, and details in open literature especially about the Shavit satellite launch vehicle. The later Jericho family development is related to the Shavit and Shavit II space launch vehicles believed to be derivatives of the Jericho II IRBM and that preceded the development of the Jericho III ICBM . The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US concluded that the Shavit could be adapted as an ICBM carrying a 500 kg warhead over 7,500 km. Additional insight into the Jericho program was revealed by the South African series of missiles, of which the RSA-3 are believed to be licensed copies of the Jericho II/Shavit, and the RSA-4 that used part of these systems in their stack with a heavy first stage. Subsequent to the declaration and disarming of the South African nuclear program , the RSA series missiles were offered commercially as satellite launch vehicles, resulting in the advertised specifications becoming public knowledge. The civilian space launch version of the Jericho, the Shavit, was studied in an air launched version piggybacked on a Boeing 747 similar to a U.S. experimental launch of the Minuteman ICBM from a C-5 Galaxy .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298013295. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.

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