Arrow
The Israeli military said 31 October 2023 that it used the “Arrow” aerial defence system for the first time since the October 7 outbreak of the war with Hamas to intercept a surface-to-surface missile in the Red Sea fired towards its territory. Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthi’s military, said the operation was the third targeting Israel and threatened to carry out more strikes “until the Israeli aggression stops.” This marked the first operational interception by the “Arrow” Aerial Defense System since the beginning of the war.
The Arrow 2 missile defense system is part of a five-tiered air defense structure, which is aimed at providing Israel with comprehensive security coverage. According to a spokesman from the Israeli Defense Ministry, Jonathan Mosery, the Arrow 2 system has been operational for years and is intended to be used for long-range threats. The other three systems – Iron Beam, David’s Sling, and Arrow 3 – are expected to become operational by 2016.
The Arrow 2 is an anti-ballistic missile system that became operational in 2000. One battery was deployed near Tel Aviv and another near the port of Haifa. The US Department of Defense began developing the system in 1988, and the Arrow 2 version was first tested in 1995. Israeli Aircraft Industries signed a contract with Boeing in February 2003 to purchase Arrow 2 systems manufactured in the US.
The Arrow 2 system normally comes with four or eight launchers and each launcher contains six missile tubes. The launchers, along with the fire control center and the radar system are usually transported by truck. The Arrow 2 uses a two stage booster engine. The system is also capable of detecting incoming missiles from 500 km away and can intercept missiles between 50 and 90 miles away. The techniques for KV maneuvering in space by using a rocket motor equipped with a flexible nozzle combined with an Attitude Control System (ACS) utilizing cold gas ejection for achieving and maintaining an orientation is used by the Arrow.RTM. interceptor.
Arrow 2 was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries with help from Boeing, Elta and Elbit Elisra. Speaking at the systems launch in 2000, Major-General Eitan Ben Eliyahu said, “This is a great day for the Air Defense Forces, for the Air Force, the defense establishment and, I would say, for the State of Israel.”
Israel said September 03, 2013 it carried out a “joint” US missile launch in the Mediterranean, having earlier claimed ignorance. Russian radars detected two ballistic rockets fired in the region, sparking widespread speculation over who was behind the launch. A spokesperson for the Israeli army confirmed that a launch of a missile had been carried out 9:15am local time (06:15 GMT), adding that US forces in the Mediterranean had been given prior warning of the drill. A fighter jet launched an Ankor-type (“Sparrow”) missile as part of a drill to test the Israeli missile defense system. However, earlier, when the Russian government announced it had detected the firing of "two ballistic objects" in the area, Israel insisted it had no “information on this issue yet.”
The Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed a US defense agency took part in a “successful flight test of the new version of the Sparrow target missile” in a statement. “Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the US Missile Defense Agency officials conducted the flight test. The main contractor for the integration and development of the Sparrow is Rafael and the main contractor of the Arrow Weapon System is MLM of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in conjunction with Boeing,” the statement explained.
On 20 August 2014 Israel and the United States conducted a joint missile test of the Arrow 2 interceptor system. It took place over the Mediterranean, according to Israel’s Defense Ministry, and was detected by military radar in southwest Russia. The missile was monitored by Israel’s Defense Ministry, who also added that the results were being analyzed by a team of engineers.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov, from the Russian Defense Ministry, stated that the missile was picked up from the Armavir Radar Station and they monitored it for 40 seconds. “The trajectory of the missile went through the central part of the Mediterranean Sea and was heading towards its east coast. It fell into the sea around 300 kilometers north of Tel Aviv,” Konashenkov said.
To test the missile defense system’s capabilities, a Rafael-produced Sparrow missile was fired from the Mediterranean Sea at Israel, a senior official from the Israeli Ministry of Defense said. "The systems detected and tracked the missile, and at the correct time, fired an Arrow 2 interceptor.” "All of the stages were carried out. We are now going over visual intelligence, broadcast from the interceptor and the target missile, to determine what occurred in the end stage," he added.
The use of the Israeli missile defense system against the Houthi ballistic missile will go down in history as the first space battle, writes the Telegraph 07 November 2023. No one has ever managed to shoot down a target outside the Earth's atmosphere. Israel used the Arrow missile defense system to shoot down a ballistic missile outside the Earth's atmosphere. It is believed that this was the first ever battle in space. The ballistic missile was launched from Yemen by Iran—backed Houthis and flew almost 1,600 kilometers over the Arabian Peninsula on its way to its target - the Israeli port city of Eilat.
Although the IDF released very few details of the interception, it is known that the Israeli Air Force has at its disposal several batteries of the Arrow 2 missile defense system, which is equipped with a hypersonic interceptor to destroy incoming missiles in space. The Israeli Defense Ministry published a video showing the moment of interception: at first, an approaching cylindrical ballistic missile is barely distinguishable in the image in conventional colors, and then the entire screen is flooded with an explosion.
In a statement, the IDF said that the Air Force systems tracked the trajectory of the missile and intercepted it "at the most appropriate moment and in the right place." Photos taken in Eilat show a plume of smoke from the Arrow interceptor, and residents of the city reported hearing the sound of a powerful explosion. The Yemeni Houthis also published video footage purporting to show a ballistic missile being launched — along with a variety of drones and other long-range weapons aimed at Israeli cities and towns.
It is reported that the ballistic missile was the Kader missile, which is an improved version of the Shahab-3 missile of Iranian design. The Kader missile, more than 15 meters long, is equipped with a high-explosive warhead and has such a range that the Houthis can strike anywhere in Israel. The Houthis have already declared war on Israel, and at the moment they are the key force of the Iranian-backed alliance that opposed this country.
The Kader ballistic missile is exactly the threat that the Arrow missile defense system was developed to counteract, first deployed about 25 years ago. The Arrow system, jointly developed by Israel and the United States, was created so that Israel could defend itself after Israel was attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles during the first Gulf War. While other missile defense systems were originally designed to shoot down aircraft, and they had to be adapted so that they could also shoot down long-range ballistic missiles flying at a higher altitude and at a higher speed, the Arrow system was originally developed for this purpose.
Previously, the Arrow system was used in 2017 to destroy a Syrian S-200 surface-to-air missile that missed an Israeli military aircraft and was flying towards an Israeli city. But the interception made on Monday was the first time that the system was used for its original purpose. "This successful interception allowed not only to protect the residents of Eilat and to strike at the Houthis' bragging rights," said one Israeli defense ministry official. "First of all, he proved to Iran, which was behind the launch and provided the missile, that Israel is capable of resisting the Iranian missile program, and this has much broader implications for the current regional conflict."
After the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 and subsequent Israeli bombing attacks on the Gaza Strip, the Houthis launched drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at Israel. The Houthis promised that they would continue their attacks "to help the Palestinians win."
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