Israel carried out a successful first test yesterday of its upgraded Arrow interceptor, which is designed to destroy in space the kind of missiles held by Iran and Syria, defence officials said.
The US-backed Arrow III will deploy “kamikaze” satellites that track and slam into ballistic missiles above the earth’s atmosphere, high enough to allow for any chemical, biological or nuclear warheads to disintegrate safely.
Yesterday’s test was the first flight of the system, but did not involve the interception of any target. Israel deployed the previous version, Arrow II, more than a decade ago and says it has scored around 90 per cent success rate in live trials.
“Arrow II was ‘Star Wars’. This is ‘Distant-Star Wars’,” Yoav Turgeman of state-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the system’s manufacturer, told Army Radio.
Launched from a coastal air base south of Tel Aviv, the Arrow III interceptor missile manoeuvred for six-and-a-half minutes over the Mediterranean sea, Israeli defence officials said. The test was attended by representatives of US partner firm Boeing and the Pentagon.
“The success of the test is an important milestone in the operational capabilities of the State of Israel to be able to defend itself against threats in the region,” Israel’s Defence Ministry said in a statement.
A ministry official who briefed foreign reporters said the timing of the test, which took months to prepare and was postponed from mid-2012, was unrelated to current Israeli fears.
Topping these are Iran, whose disputed nuclear drive is the focus of international sanctions, and Syria, which has been wracked by a two-year-old civil war and whose arsenal is believed to include chemical warheads. Israel plans another Arrow III flight test followed by a simulated interception in space over the Mediterranean. Israeli officials had predicted the new system would be deployed by 2014 or 2015.
“Israel’s hand is always outstretched in peace but we are also prepared for other eventualities. In this vein, I praise the successful test of the Arrow III,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Arrow is the long-range segment in Israel’s three-tier missile shield. This also includes the successfully deployed “Iron Dome”, which targets short-range rockets and mortar bombs favoured by Palestinian guerrillas in Gaza, and the mid-range “David’s Sling”, still under development.