- Israel and the United States held a successful test of
the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system off the coast of California yesterday.
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- The Defense Ministry announced that the Arrow successfully
intercepted an incoming Scud missile over the Pacific Ocean, while it was
still in flight. This realistic test of the Arrow ABM system was the first
of its kind, and had been planned for two years.
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- Israel developed the $2.2 billion Arrow with American
assistance in response to the failure of American Patriot missiles to down
the 39 Iraqi Scuds fired at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
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- At approximately 8:25 P.M. Israel time, a Scud missile,
confiscated by the United States from Iraq, was launched from a U.S. Naval
Air Warfare Center at Point Magu near Los Angeles. The Scud was identified
by the system's radar, Green Pine, which directed an Arrow missile to the
target. The Arrow intercepted the Scud fully.
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- This "realistic scenario could not be carried out
in Israel because of safety reasons," the Defense Ministry announcement
explained.
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- Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz described the results of
the test as "further proof of the technological superiority of Israel's
defense industries."
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- "We are in an age of uncertainty. Countries in the
`third circle' [Iran] are continuing their efforts to acquire nonconventional
capabilities along with long-range launch capabilities," he added.
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- Green Pine and the seven-meter-long Arrow missiles are
designed to track and destroy incoming threats in under three minutes at
altitudes of more than 50 kilometers. Independent experts have estimated
the Arrow's success rate at 95 percent, but some doubt whether it would
be reliable against a salvo of Iran's most advanced missiles, the Shahab-3.
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- The Iranian missile travels nearly three times as fast
as a Scud and considerably faster than the missiles the Arrow system was
designed to intercept.
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- However, Arrow engineers say the system marks a quantum
advance over the Patriot, an anti-aircraft system imperfectly adapted to
down ballistic missiles such as Scuds, which travel faster than planes
but are unable to reach space.
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- Aryeh Herzog, who is in charge of the project for the
Defense Ministry and the Israel Air Force, said: "We are all happy.
The operational implication [of the test] is that the Air Force has an
exceptional system. We have known it all along, but now we have added proof.
We will continue development. We want to achieve capabilities against future
threats, such as those being developed in Iran." This was the twelfth
test of the Arrow missile and the seventh of the overall system, which
includes the Green Pine radar.
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