Israel and US Missile Defense Agency test fired Arrow 2 interceptor

Israelian MoD and the US Missile Defense Agency test fired an Arrow 2 interceptor in central Israel on Tuesday morning. The trial was aimed at examining the capabilities of the latest version of the air defense system against future threats. 

The test was overseen by officials from the HOMA administration – a part of the Israelian Defense Ministry's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, and Israel Aerospace Industries, which is the project's prime contractor. "An Arrow 2 interceptor was fired according to plan, and carried out planned fight stages," the Israelian Ministry of Defense said. "The large amounts of data collected in the test is being analyzed by engineers," it added.

"This test has no connection to the operational performance of the Arrow weapons system, which is operated by the Air Defense Command of the air force," the statement said. In addition to IAI, the project includes Boeing, Elta, Elbit Systems and Elisra. The Arrow 2 air defense system is designed to block incoming long-range enemy missiles, and forms the second layer of Israel's multi-layered missile defense system.

During the test, a Rafael-produced Sparrow missile was fired from the Mediterranean Sea at Israel, a senior official from the Israelian Ministry of Defense said. "The systems detected and tracked the missile, and at the correct time, fired an Arrow 2 interceptor," the official added.

"All of the stages were carried out. We are now going over visual intelligence, broadcast from the interceptor and the target missile, to determine what occurred in the end stage," he said. The organizers of the trial do not yet know if the target missile was successfully intercepted, but expect to know this within a few days.

The trial is part of an effort to create a more advanced block of air defenses against continually improving projectile threats in the possession of Israel's enemies. The old Arrow 2 system finds it difficult to deal with upgraded versions of enemy missiles.

The source stressed that the test is part of a multi-year improvement program from the Arrow 2, with previous tests held in 2009 and 2011.

For the first time, the system's radar, designed by Elta Systems, an IAI subsidiary, tracked a virtual target, and sent commands to the interceptor, according to Yair Ramati, head of the HOMA program.