First U.S. Test of Arrow Missile Defense System Goes ‘Beautifully’
The skies over the California coastline witnessed history last week, as the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Israeli Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) successfully conducted the first “real-world” test of the Arrow Weapons System (AWS) interceptor, a joint program between the U.S. and Israel to develop a regional ballistic missile defense system. IMDO Director Arieh Herzog singularly described the test as “beautiful,” noting that the test highlighted four areas of success: governmental and industrial cooperation, logistical support, systems integration and “an important performance milestone [for the AWS.]”
Accepting an offer originally proposed in 2001 by the U.S. MDA, a joint U.S.-Israel team of military operators and industry contractors transported an entire Arrow 2 launch system including a ‘Green Pine’ early-warning and fire-control radar, a ‘Hazelnut Tree’ launch control center and a ‘Citron Tree’ battle management/command and control (BMC2) complex to the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Weapons Station and Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, California. Although it took nearly three years to prepare and plan for the test carried out on July 29, the actual process of moving the equipment and personnel from Israel required less than six months.
The test, designed to reflect an operational missile defense system as closely as possible, was operated entirely by the same Israeli Air Force personnel who normally operate Israel’s two operational Arrow batteries. Given little information about the threat, the IDF/AF crew, operating within the BMC2 complex on the oceanfront, tracked an incoming SCUD ballistic missile surrogate and launched a single Arrow 2 interceptor missile from the launcher located 60 miles off the coast on San Nicolas Island. The Arrow missile arced into the sky, guided by telemetry from the ‘Green Pine’ radar and computer guidance from the ‘Citron Tree’ BMC2 facility until the interceptor kill vehicle (IKV) separated from the booster stage, at which time the on-board electro-optical guidance sensor acquired the inbound missile despite a “very small [data] error during the hand-over,” according to Boaz Levy, Israel Aircaft Industries’ Arrow Program Director.
The IKV continued towards the target missile, successfully destroying the incoming missile with the Arrow’s fragmentation warhead, followed milliseconds later by a body-to-body impact of the Arrow kill vehicle and the remnants of the simulated SCUD surrogate missile.
This marks the sixth successful test of the complete Arrow system, but the first test conducted outside of Israel in order to capitalize upon the larger test ranges afforded by the geography of the United States. The previous six system-wide tests conducted in Israel (including a 1997 test in which the Arrow warhead failed in a final stage of the intercept process), have been hampered by airspace limitations, forcing the system components to be located in much closer proximity than in real-world conditions and relying upon sub-scale target missiles to be launched from F-15 fighter jets, rather than employing a true ballistic flight path.
Point Mugu, which has been used for more than 50 years by the U.S. Navy to conduct missile tests, afforded a significantly larger test range and the ability to test against a true ‘SCUD-type’ ballistic missile. (Reports that the test employed a captured Iraqi SCUD-C missile have proven untrue, however no official information has been provided as to the source of the “simulated SCUD” used in the test.)
Although IMDO Director Herzog remains tight-lipped about the details of future tests, it is clear that at least one more test of the full system will be conducted at Point Mugu before the end of 2004.
Initiated in 1988 as a joint venture between the United States and Israel to develop an Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile System (ATBMS), with the first flight occurring in 1990. The substantially-improved and significantly more-capable Arrow 2 program took shape following the Iraqi SCUD attacks against Israel during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991. The first two Arrow batteries became operational outside of the cities of Tel Aviv and Hadera in early 2000 and 2002, respectively. To date, Israel and the United States have equally split the approximately $1.3 billion cost of the Arrow 2 Development Program, according to Commander Guy Aviram, IDF, Arrow Liason Officer at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The Arrow program is not only a joint venture between the governments of the United States and Israel, but also the aerospace industries of the two nations. While Israel Aircraft Industries serves as the prime contractor, with Israeli firms Elta and Tadiran providing the radar and battle management systems, respectively, Boeing and a host of U.S.-based sub-contractors are providing key components of the most recent Arrow variants, known as A2-vM4 and A2-vM5. However, as stipulated in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Israel and the U.S. in 1986, no complete missiles or control systems are produced within the United States for shipment to Israel.
Currently, work is underway on the Arrow System Improvement Program (ASIP), a joint effort of the IMDO and the U.S. MDA, as well as IAI and Boeing aimed at providing an evolving capability for the AWS and better systems integration in the future. Having demonstrated the capability of working side-by-side with Israel’s short-range Patriot missile systems and the advanced U.S. Army Patriot PAC-3 batteries during recent Juniper Cobra exercises and during the major combat portion of Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to IMDO Director Herzog, Israel currently plans on fusing the Arrow 2 systems and the shorter-range IDF Patriot PAC-2/GEM+ together with the IDF’s existing national aerospace monitoring systems, to provide a comprehensive and centralized air-defense system, rather than coordinating the actions of individual batteries of Arrow interceptors, separate Patriot missile units and IAF pilots. Herzog envisions a three-tiered system, with Arrow providing defense against MRBMs from Syria and Iran, Patriot providing defense against Short-Range Ballistic Missiles and the Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser (MTHEL) to protect communities against Katyusha and Qassam rockets.
For the foreseeable future, Israel is likely to be the only nation to field the Arrow Weapons System, although developmental data and operational lessons have played some role in current U.S. efforts aimed at providing National Missile Defense and on the Navy’s ship-based Theater-Wide missile defense system. Although India purchased a ‘Green Pine’ radar from Elta in 2001 and has expressed interest in deploying its own battery of Arrow interceptor missiles, U.S. concerns regarding compliance with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR, an international agreement limiting the proliferation of ballistic missile technology, have effectively halted such plans for the time being.
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