The anti-missile system is intended to intercept high
altitude ballistic missiles
The Ministry of Defense's Homa Administration successfully
carried out a successful flight test Monday of the Arrow 3 (in Hebrew:
Hetz 3) anti-missile missile, in conjunction with the U.S. Missile Defense
Agency.
The Defense Ministry said that the test was intended to
check the flight systems of the missile, which is meant to provide added
high-altitude protection against missiles and to solidify the defensive array
protecting Israel
from the long range missile threat.
The Arrow 3 will be able to intercept ballistic missiles
with longer ranges than the ones that Arrow 2 can bring down, and it will do so
at higher altitudes. It is part of the multi-layer defense system that is
intended to protect the state of Israel,
which also includes the Iron
Dome system and the Magic Wand
system.
Iron Dome, which is already operational and functioned very
well during Operation Pillar of Defense, deals primarily with short range missiles. Magic Wand will deal with the
medium-range threat.
Development of the Arrow 3 is expected to take two more
years, whereas Magic Wand is due to become operational in 2014.
Missile
system is supposed to defend against possible Iranian ballistic missile strike
but has never been tested in battle.
The next
trial of the Arrow 3, Israel's main future anti-missile defense weapons system,
has been postponed for an unexplained reason, according to a report in the US
weekly Space News quoted by Globes.
Development
of the Arrow 3 missile is already one year behind schedule. According to the
"Space News' report, the flight trial that had been planned for this month
has now been postponed until the end of the year.
Arrow 3
technical staff declined to specify the reason for the delay but it is
reportedly "believed to be serious" because the missile has been
returned from its launcher to an installation belonging to Israel Aerospace
Industries, for repairs.
A
Pentagon source told "Space News" that the flight trial, that was
meant to be the first in the development of the Arrow 3, has been postponed
"because of additional necessary work to solve a problem."
The
Director of the Defense Ministry's Israel Missile Defense Organization, Yair
Ramati, reportedly updated the U.S. Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Patrick
O'Reilly about the latest problem at a conference in Berlin last week.
This was
to be the first test of all the Arrow-3 systems. Subsystems have already been
tested, reported UPI.
The
two-stage missile being developed by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries
and the Boeing Co. of the United States will be Israel's main line of defense
against Iran's growing arsenal of immediate-range Shehab-3 missiles and the
more advanced Sejjil-2 weapons under development
The
Arow-3 can reach twice the altitude of Arrow-2 and its second stage has its own
propulsion unit that enables it to maneuver toward its target.
The
Pentagon, which provides much of the funding for the joint program and has been
seeking to persuade U.S. legislators that it's worth Congress investing
taxpayers' money in the project, says Arrow-3 will be able to provide four
times the coverage of Arrow-2.
According
to UPI, Itzhak Kaya, who heads the Arrow program, said that recent testing
involved simulated interceptions to evaluate Arrow-3's detection capabilities.
Neither
of the first two Arrow variants has been used on combat and there have been
concerns about its ability to counter a heavy salvo of Shehab or Sejjil
missiles.
Uzi
Rubin, considered one of the pre-eminent missile system analysts in the Middle
East, recently said Arrow could cope with any missile fired by the Iranians.
"I
can't say that every incoming will be known down," he told IDF Radio.
"There isn't 100 percent protection and not everything is a success.
"But
for every single missile coming from Iran there's a single Arrow missile
capable of intercepting it one for one."
Rubin, a
former air force brigadier general, was head of Israel's Missile Defense
Organization in 1991-99 and oversaw development of the Arrow series.
"Iran
has between 300 and 400 Shehab-3 missiles it can fire at Israel," he said.
Rubin
added that Iran's aerospace industry has significantly improved the Shehab's
accuracy from "a marked target that could cover a few kilometers to just a
few hundred meters."
That,
according to the report, "would make the Iranian missiles a much greater
threat to Israeli airbases and military installations, as well as the national
infrastructure, than previously thought."
