Defense Ministry Nixes Missile Test Second Time Since December

by Yona Schnitzer

For the second time since the beginning of December, the Defense Ministry cancelled a test of the Arrow 3 anti-missile system Wednesday following a system malfunction.

“The incident has no effect on the operational Arrow 2 anti-missile defense system, which has been employed by air force defense units for years,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The trial had been planned as part of the top level of Israel’s multi-layered defense plan.

The Arrow program, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles while they are still outside the Earth’s atmosphere, has been a joint U.S.-Israel project since 1988, with Seattle-based Boeing and Israel Aircraft Industries working jointly to develop the Arrow 3 since 2012.

According to the conservative National Interest foreign policy journal, Washington has spent $743 million on Arrow 3 funding since 2008.

In June 2018, Israel defense officials and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), were together planning to test the Arrow 3 system near Kodiak, Alaska. The State of Israel is too small to test the system locally.