---
tags:
  - Organization
  - Private
  - France
category: "Private Organization"
summary: "Dassault is the French aerospace company that jointly developed the Jericho I missile with Israel under a 1963 $100 million contract, providing France's key role in the early Israeli ballistic missile program."
start: 1929
location: "Vaucresson, France"
---
Dassault Company is a French aerospace company. In 1963, [[Israel]] paid $100 million to Dassault for the joint development and manufacture of twenty-five medium-range Israeli missiles, which would become known as the Jericho I. These missiles were anticipated to be capable of delivering a miniaturized nuclear warhead to targets three hundred miles away.[^1]

By 1963, the Dassault Company was involved in the joint development and manufacture of the Jericho I missile system with [[Israel]]. This missile was designed to deliver a miniaturized nuclear warhead to targets three hundred miles away.[^1]

[[Charles de Gaulle]] claimed to newsmen that he had not known of Dassault's contract with [[Israel]] until the first field test in 1967 of the Jericho I, although the French firm continued to work with Israelis on the missile program for another year.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 3, 9, 13.