Ministry)
Israel conducted a successful test of its Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system on Tuesday morning outside the Earth’s atmosphere, the Defense Ministry said.
The trial tested a number of “breakthrough” capabilities for the missile defense system, which can be used immediately by the Israeli Air Force, the Defense Ministry’s Missile Defense Organization head Moshe Patel told reporters on Tuesday.
“We have made a breakthrough in every part of the system, in the detection arrays, in the launches, even in the interceptors themselves, so that they match the threats that are expected in the region. There were highly, highly significant technological breakthroughs here that were assessed and can be used by the air force in its operational systems immediately,” Patel said.
Boaz Levy, the president and CEO of the Israel Aerospace Industries, which manufactures the Arrow 3, said the breakthroughs were principally in the area of “algorithms,” the ways in which the systems detect incoming threats and calculate launch trajectories for interceptors.
“I won’t elaborate, but it gives the system more capabilities in dealing with threats,” Levy told reporters.
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The live-fire test was held over central Israel in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with two Arrow 3 interceptors being fired at the same target.
“The operational radar arrays of the Arrow system detected the target and sent the data to the fire management system, which analyzed the data and fully plotted the interception. Once the plans were completed, two Arrow 3 interceptors were fired at the target, and they completed their mission successfully,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Two Arrow 3 interceptors are launched during a test of the missile defense system on January 18, 2022. (Defense Ministry)
Levy said the launching of two interceptors was intentional and planned in advance, not the result of one failing to shoot down the incoming simulated target. He said the two interceptors had “two different missions” in the exercise, having been given two different flight paths to shoot down the same target. “They were carried out exactly as we planned them,” Levy added.
Patel added that this more closely matches what would happen in an actual barrage and is the first time that two interceptors were launched simultaneously. He refused to comment on the precise altitude at which the interceptors shot down the target, but said it was “deep in space.”
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The Arrow 3 is currently Israel’s most advanced long-range missile defense system, meant to intercept ballistic missiles while they are still outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, ta