US Considering Silver Sparrow for Interception Tests

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is examining the use of Rafael’s Sparrow target missiles for the purpose of tests being carried out with antimissile missiles. The move comes after Rafael’s signing of a cooperation agreement with Raytheon for the marketing of the missiles in the US and in additional countries.

The target missile is launched from an aircraft, and simulates the trajectory of a ballistic missile. According to Yuval M., of Rafael’s Air-to-Surface Division, “these missiles are among the most advanced of their kind worldwide, and cost much less than the missiles currently available on the market, primarily those in US possession."

The most advanced model in this line of targets is the Silver Sparrow. This model is currently being developed in the framework of the Arrow-3 project for which Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is responsible for, which is part of the multi-layered defense project intended to defend Israel against long-range ballistic missiles.

The first missile generation was the Black Sparrow, developed in the 1990s as part of the Arrow-1 program. It is based on Rafael’s Popeye air-to-surface missile and can simulate a Scud-B ballistic missile. The Blue Sparrow, which simulates the more advanced Scud-D missile, was developed afterwards. The Silver Sparrow currently under development will be a target missile weighing 3.2 tons and will have a length of approximately eight meters.

French media reported last year that the French Air Force was utilized the Black Sparrow in tests being carried out on the ASTER surface-to-air missile.