Israel Cancelled Arrow-3 Test Due to Malfunction in Target Missile
The Israeli Ministry of Defense stopped a preplanned interception test of the Arrow-3 missile defense system on Monday after discovering flaws in the target missile
IsraelDefense
| 04/12/2017
The Arrow-3 missile defense system (Photo: IMOD)
The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced it had called off a test of the Arrow-3 missile defense system in light of a safety violation concerning the simulated target.
According to Col. (res.) Moshe Patel, the head of IMOD's Missile Defense Program, the joint test of the Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system by the Israeli Defense Ministry and American Missile Defense Agency (MDA) was cut short after the target missile did not meet the predetermined safety conditions needed to carry out the test.
The target, which was supposed to simulate an incoming ballistic missile, did not fly at the proper altitude and so an interception could have put nearby aircraft at risk. In light of the glitch, the trial was declared a "no test" by the chief engineer.
IMOD launched an investigation into why the target missile, known as Black Sparrow and produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in cooperation with Raytheon, did not function properly. "We are trying to study what happened to the target and why it did not behave as expected," Patel said, emphasizing that "The experiment was not a failure."
The Israeli Ministry of Defense stopped a preplanned interception test of the Arrow-3 missile defense system on Monday after discovering flaws in the target missile
The Arrow-3 missile defense system (Photo: IMOD)
The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced it had called off a test of the Arrow-3 missile defense system in light of a safety violation concerning the simulated target.
According to Col. (res.) Moshe Patel, the head of IMOD's Missile Defense Program, the joint test of the Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system by the Israeli Defense Ministry and American Missile Defense Agency (MDA) was cut short after the target missile did not meet the predetermined safety conditions needed to carry out the test.
The target, which was supposed to simulate an incoming ballistic missile, did not fly at the proper altitude and so an interception could have put nearby aircraft at risk. In light of the glitch, the trial was declared a "no test" by the chief engineer.
IMOD launched an investigation into why the target missile, known as Black Sparrow and produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in cooperation with Raytheon, did not function properly. "We are trying to study what happened to the target and why it did not behave as expected," Patel said, emphasizing that "The experiment was not a failure."
