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Israel's Arrow Intercepts a Syrian Missile

(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Uzi Rubin - On March 17, 2017, the Arrow missile defense system successfully intercepted a Syrian antiaircraft missile that had been fired against Israel Air Force aircraft engaged in a deep penetration mission inside Syria. The Arrow was originally optimized against medium- and long-range ballistic missiles, with the Arrow 2 for high atmosphere interceptions and Arrow 3 for space interceptions. The system was extensively tested but did not feature in any of the last decade's wars against short-range rockets from Lebanon and Gaza. The March 17 interception was thus its first-ever reported combat action. Even more impressive is the fact that the destroyed threat was not a ballistic missile but an antiaircraft missile. No missile defense system dedicated to the interception of antiaircraft missiles has yet been developed. That is because it is more feasible to neutralize them through "soft" defenses like electronic warfare and decoys. A previous firing of antiaircraft missiles against IAF planes took place in January 2017. In neither case was the Israeli plane hit, indicating that they carried sufficient "soft" defenses to thwart the Syrian missiles. On March 17, a Syrian SA-5 interceptor, dimensionally very similar to a Scud, missed its target, did not self-destruct, and continued to fly in a stable ballistic trajectory toward Israel. It was picked up at a distance by the "Green Pine" radars, its predicted impact point was seen to be within Israeli territory, and it was classified as an imminent threat. Using a single interceptor, the Arrow system detected, locked onto, and neutralized a threatening missile of a type never envisaged during its original design. The writer was founding director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, which managed the Arrow program.
2017-04-03 00:00:00
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