Israel's Missile Defense Shields - Part 3: ARROW

In my two previous posts on Israel's missile defense structure, I discussed the Israelis' Iron Dome and David's Sling systems.  Today, I will briefly mention the third component of Israel's missile defense shield, the Arrow system.  While Iron Dome and David's Sling are designed to deal with short to medium range missiles, the Arrow system is designed to knock long range ballistic missiles out of the sky.

While Iron Dome and David's Sling were largely designed for use against Hamas and Hezbollah, the Arrow is seen as a defense against Iran's ballistic missiles.  The Arrow Missile-Killer system is a joint-venture between Boeing of the US and IAI (Israel Aircraft Industries) of Israel.  Currently, there are two Arrow batteries deployed, one in Northern Israel and one outside of Tel Aviv.  So far, the Arrow has gone through two iterations, but the real "killer app" for the Arrow will be the planned Arrow-3.  Currently, there are two Arrow batteries deployed, one in Northern Israel and one outside of Tel Aviv.

The Arrow-3 is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space outside the Earth's atmosphere in the final phase of their trajectory and destroy them on impact.  The Arrow-2 - the version operationally deployed by the Israeli military - is built to destroy hostile missiles at lower altitudes within the atmosphere by exploding near them.  Any day now, we can expect that the new Arrow-3 missile will be tested live, and this should give the Israelis a keen sense of where their progress on their overall missile defense infrastructure stands.

Here is an article from the website Defense Daily analyzing the capabilities of the Arrow system, and below a depiction of how the Arrow is designed to work.

Israel's Arrow Missile Defense System Works