Arrow 3 missile system fails interception test

A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official said an exercise meant to test an advanced missile defense system developed with the US had failed.

The official said a missile was launched from the Mediterranean Sea Tuesday to test the first live interception by the Arrow 3.

“We would like to clarify that the target missile was launched and the ARROW system successfully tracked the target scene as presented. The target scene was not satisfactory to meet test objectives and therefore an interceptor was not launched. A decision was made to conduct a target test only,” the Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement Tuesday evening.

Arrow 3 is part of the multi-layered system Israel is developing to protect itself against a range of missile threats — from short-range rockets fired from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, to longer-range threats like a missile launch from Iran.

Arrow 3 is designed to strike targets outside the atmosphere, intercepting missiles closer to their launch sites.

The missile interceptors are designed to intercept more than five ballistic missiles within 30 seconds at altitudes of over 100 km (62 miles).

High-altitude interceptions are meant to safely destroy an incoming nuclear, biological or chemical warhead, before its target or trajectory is identified.

The anti-ballistic missile system is being developed by Israel Aerospace Industries together with US aviation giant Boeing, and is set to be operational within the next two years.

This is the second Arrow test that has failed recently. A test of the system’s earlier version, Arrow 2, failed to lock on to its target during a September trial.