(Communicated by the Ministry of Defense)
The
Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) and the
U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) completed a successful flight of the Arrow-3 interceptor missile. This is the second flight test of the Arrow-3 interceptor and was conducted at Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea.
At 08:00 the Arrow-3 interceptor successfully launched and flew an exoatmospheric trajectory through space, according to the test plan.
The Arrow-3 interceptor was designed to provide another layer of defense against ballistic missiles, to add interception opportunities to the joint U.S.-Israel Arrow Weapon System and to improve the active defense architecture of the State of Israel against the missile threats.
The successful test is a major milestone in the development of the Arrow-3 Weapon System and provides confidence in future Israeli capabilities to defeat the developing ballistic missile threat.
Israel Missile Defense Organization and U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials conducted the flight test. The main contractor for the integration and the development of the Arrow Weapon System is
MLM of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in conjunction with
Boeing/
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told
visiting US Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Barrasso, "I want to thank the Senators for their support, for the support of the American government, for the Arrow program. We had today a successful launch. This is a great advance in Israel's ability to protect itself against ballistic missiles. We need a lot of protection in this area because there are bad regimes led by Iran, and terrorist proxies who have missiles that are periodically fired against us. We protect ourselves by having the ability to fight back but also by having the ability to defend ourselves. That is what Arrow is for and I thank you for it."