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Israeli defense ministry admits "Arrow" tests failed

Xinhua, February 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Israeli defense ministry admitted on Tuesday recent tests of the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 missile interception systems failed.

According to a defense ministry statement, the Arrow 2 test in September and the Arrow 3 missile test in December missed the mark.

In the September 9 test, the interceptor missed the rocket. Russian media outlets reported that the missile fell at sea, about 300 km away from Tel Aviv's coast. In the December test, the Arrow recognized the target but operators in the control center decided not to fire the missiles.

The Arrow is an interceptor systems with missiles designed to fly above the earth's atmosphere, with warheads then detached to vehicles that explode upon the target. It is a joint development of the U.S. Boeing firm and the Israeli Aerospace Industries.

The Arrow system is supposed to protect Israel in case of long-range missile and rocket attacks by Iran, Syria, Lebanon along with the existing Iron Dome anti-missile batteries.

The ministry added in the statement that it had contacted scientists to check what went wrong in the first test and that it is planning to make improvements to the missiles. Enditem (Anat Shalev/Fa