With recent events and speeches nudging missile defense back toward center stage, Israel made a statement of its own Tuesday with a successful test of an “improved” Arrow Weapon System interceptor designed to defeat ballistic missile threats, according to the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMoD).
“The future protecting system is an important project for Israel,” Ehud Barak, Israel’s Defense Minister said after the test.
The 17th Arrow system experiment pitted it against several extremely challenging target missile characteristics that sources in Israel say represented closely those of an Iranian Shihab missile.
An Israeli warplane over the Mediterranean launched the target missile, at which point the weapon system entered “play” mode, IMoD said. The target was detected, acquired by a “Super Green Pine” radar, an intercept solution was calculated and the interceptor was launched, hitting the target.
Israel has been clear that its missile defense aspirations stemmed from threats it felt posed by Iran and Syria. The message it hoped to convey with yesterday’s test was that Israel was expanding the operational envelope higher and farther out, with an eye toward future threats.
Defense Minister Barak witnessed the launch from an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) helicopter while returning from visiting troops near the Gaza border, and he was updated with the test results.
Barak said the developments, in combination with Israel’s successful tests last week of its “Iron Dome” rocket defense system, would give Israel a “well and an immediate protection from the strategic threats.” The defense establishment was working intensively to provide a multi-layered defense system from missiles and rockets to insure the safety of Israeli citizens, he added.
Israel’s Arrow anti-ballistic missile system uses a two-stage interceptor, Arrow II, to destroy an incoming target with a fragmentation warhead (Defense Daily, Nov. 8, 2007). The Israeli Missile Defense Organization in IMoD’s Research and Development Directorate manages the program, in close cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Representatives from both organizations were on hand yesterday for the test that was developed as part of the Arrow System Improvement Program (ASIP).
Boeing [BA] and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) co-produce the Arrow II interceptor for IMoD.
Boeing is responsible for production of about 35 percent of the Arrow interceptor components. Boeing production and management are in Huntsville, Ala.
IAI, the prime contractor of the Arrow system, is responsible for system integration and final interceptor assembly in Israel.
In early 2007, IMoD announced a successful ASIP fly-out test of an improved capability Arrow interceptor (Defense Daily, March 27, 2007). The interceptor was co-produced by Boeing and IAI’s MLM division. The first co-produced Arrow II interceptor was delivered by IAI to IMoD in the spring of 2005.
According to Israeli sources, about 90 percent of the program tests so far have been successful.