An amazing find from Rami at +961:
Believe it or not, I just found out that Haigazian university and the Lebanese army have cooperated back in the 1960?s to produce a series of surface-to-surface missiles called “Arz-1?, “Arz-2?, and “Arz-3?.
It all started with a project led by Professor Manoug Manuogian at Haigazian university in 1960 resulting in a single-stage rocket that reached an altitude of 2 kilometers. The Lebanese president at that time, Fouad Chehab, decided to finance the project with 25,000 L.L, which allowed the group to build tw0-stage rockets in summer 1962, and a three-stage rocket later in November 1962. By the end of this year rockets were able to reach an altitude of 20Km!
However, the project was halted shortly after the French President Charles de Gaulle told President Chehab that the Lebanese abilities were proven in the scientific field, but the project might put Lebanon at risk if further researches are done! (WTF!!!) i.e. These missiles are a threat to Israel, and it will not remain silent towards the advancement of the Lebanese army in missile technology!
I’m pretty sure very few people knew of this. Whether you like it or not, military research and spending is a major catalyst towards economic growth and prosperity – had the project continued, Lebanon would surely have been an entirely different country than it is today.
Thank you Jad! 🙂
It’s brilliant that you wrote about this! I’m on a personal quest to find documents on Iskandar Ibrahim Chaoui, the industrial chemist who formulated the missile fuel. Science et Vie also wrote a special edition on that, 1960 or 1963. If any one can find an archived copy, I’d be willing to pay for a scan of it.
Note: these missiles released paper tracts with they hit the ground, as opposed to having a lead head that explodes. They were not a means to make us a belligerent country, they were a demonstration of our scientific aptitude, and yes they could have fuel a string of innovation. Imagine what effect we can still have, if we put the Lebanese Patent office back on its feet, and organized inventor forums!
thanks again for writing about this, I had a high school math teacher in Lebanon who talked about that non-stop!
We should thank Rami for his work. I had no idea Lebanon had a missile program had it not been for his post.