by Gil Ronen
The Israeli Defense Ministry's Research Authority and the United States' Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful joint test of the Arrow anti-missile system Monday night off of the US's west coast.
This was the 18th test of an interceptor from the Arrow "family" of anti-missile missiles. The Arrow was launched from an American test site on the West Coast, and the target - which simulates a threat that Israel may have to face in battle - was launched toward the shore from a platform in the heart of the Pacific Ocean
The system detected the threat with the Oren Yarok ("Green Pine") radar and transferred the threat data to the fire management center, which computed a defensive plan against it. The defensive plan was sent to the launcher, which fired the test interceptor missile. The missile successfully carried out all of the flight stages, acquired the target and destroyed it at the desired spot.
The test complements a test from April 2009 and includes new elements that were recently added to the system and have proven themselves effective
The main contractor for developing the weapon system is the Israel Aerospace Industry's 'Malam' plant, which cooperated with Elta, the manufacturer of the Etrog Zahav fire management center, and Boeing, which participated in manufacturing some of the Arrow's components.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was happy with the experiment's success. "This is an important milestone in the effort the defense establishment is making to develop an active, multi-layered defense system," he said. "It joins the success of the system last week. Israel's citizens can be proud of the fact that Israel is the leading country in the world in the field of multi-layered anti-missile defense."
Critics of Israel's anti-missile missile systems contend that Israel needs to go back to the deterrenet attack posture of decades past, instead of hunkering down behind walls and relying on extremely expensive defense systems that have not been tested in the heat of battle.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
