Missile defense test aborted amid safety concerns

Israel planned to conduct another test of its anti-ballistic missile defense system, but aborted the operation amid safety concerns.  

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

A test conducted on the Israeli the Arrow 3 missile defense system was aborted on Monday right before its execution, as engineers feared that debris from the test could endanger its surroundings.

The trial was stopped at an early stage, after the target projectile was fired but before the Arrow interceptor took off. The target projectile self-destroyed.

The project engineers are collecting and analyzing data on the aborted test.

It was feared that the debris from the test would fall on an Israeli city or hit inbound aircraft.

The system has been successfully tested in the past.

The Arrow-3 interceptor capabilities enable longer range, higher altitude exo-atmospheric interception and more precise ballistic missile engagements.

The Arrow 3 anti-ballistic defense system became operational in January.

The system, jointly funded and developed by Israel and the US’ Missile Defense Agency (MDA), provides outer-atmospheric interception of ballistic missiles. The Arrow 3 provides another layer of defense, supplementing the already operational Arrow 2 defensive system.

The Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 join Israel’s broad defensive systems, which include the highly successful Iron Dome system and David’s Sling, designed to contend with mid-range missiles. They provide an almost hermetic defense against a wide array of ballistic projectiles, with eyes on the Iranian ballistic threat and those posed by the Hezbollah terror organization out of Lebanon and Hamas out of Gaza.