Israeli missile-defence test aborted in US

I-G

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Israeli missile-defence test aborted

Updated on Thursday, July 23, 2009, 14:12 IST

Jerusalem: Israeli defence officials say three tests in the US of a missile defence system meant to shield Israel from Iranian attack have been aborted over the past week.

They say an upgraded version of the already-deployed Arrow 2 was being tested off the coast of California. They say communication glitches between the missile and the radar led US defence officials to abort.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose details of the tests.

State-run Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd is producing the Arrow together with Chicago-based Boeing Co.

The defence officials say the Arrow 2 was meant to intercept a dummy Iranian Shihab missile. But they say US officials stopped the launch of the intercepting missile because of the communications glitch.

Israeli missile-defence test aborted
 

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Israel's Arrow II missile aborted thrice

Updated on Thursday, July 23, 2009, 20:54 IST

Jerusalem: In a setback to Israel's defence preparedness, Tel Aviv's newly upgraded Arrow II missile defence system, in which India is also said to have evinced keen interest, failed at least three tests over the past week due to 'technical glitches'.

The tests were conducted at a US range off the California coast. The Pentagon said that the first long-range test for the system that was supposed to intercept long range Iranian and Syrian missiles from there launch point thousands of kilometres away, could not be launched because of "interceptor problems".

The Israeli defence establishment said the problems preventing the launch came from "malfunctions in the communications system." "Not all test conditions to launch the Arrow Interceptor were met and it was not launched," the Pentagon said. Three tests in the US of the missile defence system have been aborted over the past week, Israel said.

The Arrow II was meant to intercept a dummy Iranian Shahab missile, they said, adding that the US officials stopped the launch of the intercepting missile because of a communications glitch.

In a test involving three US missile interceptors, Arrow tracked a target missile dropped from a C-17 aircraft, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Israeli system also exchanged data on the target in real-time with elements of the US missile defence system, the statement said.

Other objectives were achieved and the results were being analysed, the Pentagon added.

Israel in April successfully tested the Arrow II anti-ballistic missile system. The Arrow missile intercepted a Blue Sparrow missile simulating the flight path of an Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missile over the Mediterranean.

It was the first test of an upgraded Arrow missile combined with new radar, the X-band radar the United States installed in the Negev eight months ago, and a new command and control system.

Upgrades to Arrow, which has already been deployed at two sites in Israel, are widely seen as part of US efforts to persuade Israel not to attack Iran pre-emptively while Washington pursues diplomacy with Tehran.

Israel`s Arrow II missile aborted thrice
 

venom

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After much talk, Israeli Arrow fails to find target

Israelis sources have confirmed a "resounding failure" for a crucial series of live firing tests for the Arrow missile-defense system.

The attempted firings took place in California last week and were intended to assess the efficiency of the upgraded version of Arrow II against an incoming intermediate-range ballistic missile such as the Shahab-3 missile, Associated Press reported.

Although individual elements of the improved system had been tested previously in Israel, the complete system has never been proven against a realistic long-range target due to the lack of space in and around Israel.

According to the US Missile Defense Agency, in one of last week's tests a US Air Force C-17 aircraft launched a dummy missile over the Pacific Ocean.

The Arrow's radar detected and tracked the target and the data was passed to the "battle management control center", however, due to various malfunctions, the Arrow interceptor missile was not launched.

Other communications problems between the radar and the missile prevented a successful launch on two other occasions last week.

Israel had test-fired the improved Arrow II against a "Blue Sparrow" missile over the Mediterranean last April, but that was not a close enough analog for an incoming ballistic missile.

Given that the sole purpose of taking the complete complex Arrow system to the US West Coast was to test-fire the Arrow interceptor against a close analog of a ballistic missile fired far from the Arrow battery, its repeated failures can be fairly described as catastrophic.

The Arrow system -- jointly developed by the Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. and the Boeing Corporation of the US -- was originally designed to intercept short-range Scud-type missiles launched from 300-400 km (186-249 miles) away.

However, with the development of Iran's Shahab-3 and Sejjil missiles with ranges of up to 2,000 km (1,243 miles), Israel has modified the system to maintain its invulnerability in the face of an Iranian response to any Israeli attack.

In parallel to the improved Arrow II system, Israel is developing an Arrow III, described by Israeli sources as a "totally different system", which acknowledges Arrow II's inherent shortcomings and lack of development potential.

The rising quantity and quality of Iran's ballistic missiles, combined with the repeated failures of the Arrow system have resulted in calls in Israel for the procurement of the US THAAD missile defense system.

Like Arrow III, the THAAD system is still under development and years away from operational deployment.

After much talk, Israeli Arrow fails to find target
 

sayareakd

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we have to keep an eye on these test...........so that we can learn from them.....
 

prahladh

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Whats the complexity in these tests that even Israel is failing.
 

sayareakd

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radar is not giving information to the missile........... they need to come to India, we have got whole army of software professionals to help israel, ofcourse for a fee and we evern test the system on our soil.........
 

prahladh

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Sir even our radars are their derivatives. How come their radars are failing.
 

sayareakd

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sir my information is our radar is made with some help from them, but it was better in term of rage and some other featurs and they went back to Israel and then made Green Pine-II.......
 

Dark Sorrow

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Sir even our radars are their derivatives. How come their radars are failing.
Isreal just gave us know about how things work and how things are to be built. We have developed and built our semiconductor based T/R module for Swordfish Radar and all the backend equipment. We have written the software code. Isreal just acted as consultents.
 

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