Linked System of Batteries May Shield Israel in Future

By the end of the decade, Israel hopes to create a national missile defense system by connecting several Arrow anti-missile batteries to a single command-and-control system.

Israel is moving from developing a set of discrete Arrow batteries toward a national missile defense system that would include several launchers and radar sites, all linked to a central command-and-control system, Arieh Herzog, director of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, said Aug. 2 in Washington.

With continuous improvements of the Arrow system under way, Herzog said, it can take on any evolving threat from Syria and Iran — Israel’s most immediate threats. “Whenever the Iranians have an improvement [in their ballistic missiles], we’ll have an answer,” he said.

Herzog briefed reporters Aug. 2 about a July 29 test of the system, held at the Point Mugu Sea Range in California, where the Arrow anti-missile system shot down a Scud-like target. During the test, the interceptor and target launcher were farther apart than in earlier tests conducted in Israel, Herzog said.

The Arrow will be tested in the United States whenever Israeli test ranges impose constraints on tests, Herzog said. The system has undergone seven successful tests to date, he said.

The Arrow is a joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense system that began in the early 1990s. It was conceived as a system to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles on the battlefield, but with additional batteries, it is capable of providing national coverage for a small country like Israel.

Herzog said the current American involvement in the Arrow program is two-fold: Joint tests of the system, and continuing development of Arrow under the Arrow System Improvement Program.

Under a joint production agreement reached last year, Boeing, Chicago, makes subsystems for Arrow interceptors that are then shipped to Israel for final assembly by Israel Aircraft Industries, Beer Yakov, Israel.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3115430&C=mideast

And the Scud is a very old design.
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One step at a time. A decade ago this was still science fiction.

There is some doubt whether it would be reliable against a salvo of Iran’s most advanced missiles, the Shahab-3.
The Iranian missile travels nearly three times as fast as a Scud and considerably faster than the missiles the Arrow system was designed to intercept.
However, Arrow engineers say the system marks a quantum advance over the Patriot, an anti-aircraft system imperfectly adapted to down ballistic missiles such as Scuds, which travel faster than planes but are unable to reach space.

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