*Source: DTN News / AP
(NSI News Source Info) JERUSALEM, Israel - July 24, 2009: A joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense system meant to shield Israel from Iranian attack hit a snag when a series of tests were aborted because of malfunctions, defense officials said Thursday. 
This file photo, taken on Friday Dec. 2, 2005, released by Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., shows an Arrow missile being launched at an undisclosed location in Israel. Israeli defense officials say three tests in the U.S. of the missile defense system meant to shield Israel from Iranian attack have been aborted over the past week. (AP Photo/Israel Aircraft Industries, File)
The Arrow, a joint project between state-run Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. and Chicago-based Boeing Co., is part of a multilayered missile-defense system Israel is working on to protect it from all forms of attack, ranging from short-range rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza to longer-range missiles from Iran.
Israel sees Iran as its biggest threat because of its nuclear program and development of medium-range ballistic missiles. Those fears have been compounded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's persistent anti-Israeli rhetoric.
Israel's concerns were heightened this week when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. would extend a "defense umbrella" over its Gulf Arab allies to prevent Iran from dominating the region "once they have a nuclear weapon."
The comments raised eyebrows in Israel.
"I was not thrilled to hear the American statement from yesterday that they will protect their allies with a nuclear umbrella, as if they have already come to terms with a nuclear Iran," Dan Meridor, Israel's minister of intelligence and atomic energy, told Army Radio. "I think that's a mistake."
Hours after Meridor spoke, Clinton clarified her remarks, saying she was "not suggesting any new policy" on Iran and continued to believe that "Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable."
Israeli officials and analysts played down the glitches in the Arrow tests, saying they were expected in such a complicated project and would not affect the long-term development of the system.
A statement from the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said the mission was an interception test and also exercised the Arrow system's interoperability with other elements of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system.
The tests of the Arrow II system took place over the past week off the coast of California, most recently on Wednesday, the defense officials said. But communication glitches between the missile and the radar led U.S. defense officials to abort the test before an intercepting missile could be fired, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the tests.
The Pentagon said the target missile was dropped from a C-17 aircraft. It said the radar system detected the target, but "not all test conditions to launch the Arrow Interceptor were met, and it was not launched." It said the results were being analyzed.
An operational version of Arrow II is partially deployed, and the U.S. and Israel are in the preliminary stages of developing an upgraded Arrow III.
The homegrown "Iron Dome" system is designed to bring down short-range rockets of the kind Palestinian and Lebanese militants use. Last week, Israeli officials reported a successful live test of the system.
The Arrow project was spurred largely by the failure of the U.S. military's Patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi Scud rockets that struck Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said tests of the same Arrow system in Israel earlier this year were "very successful." He said the recent tests were carried out in the U.S. because that would allow for greater distances than would be possible in Israel.
He said malfunctions of systems still in their experimental stage were to be expected and said other tests were called off on Friday and Monday.
The defense officials said the improved Arrow II was meant to intercept a dummy Iranian Shihab missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. But U.S. officials blocked the launch of an intercepting missile because of the communications glitch, the Israelis said.
Iran's Shihab-3 has a range of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers), putting Israel well within striking distance.
Isaac Ben-Israel, a retired general and weapons expert, said the interceptor wasn't fired because it is too expensive to use in a test that isn't expected to go according to plan. He said such glitches are common when developing new systems and he did not consider it a significant setback.
"I expect that within a short period of time, after they determine exactly what happened, they will repeat this experiment and then we will know if it works or not," Ben-Israel said.
This file photo, taken on Friday Dec. 2, 2005, released by Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., shows an Arrow missile being launched at an undisclosed location in Israel. Israeli defense officials say three tests in the U.S. of the missile defense system meant to shield Israel from Iranian attack have been aborted over the past week. (AP Photo/Israel Aircraft Industries, File)
The Arrow, a joint project between state-run Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. and Chicago-based Boeing Co., is part of a multilayered missile-defense system Israel is working on to protect it from all forms of attack, ranging from short-range rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza to longer-range missiles from Iran.
Israel sees Iran as its biggest threat because of its nuclear program and development of medium-range ballistic missiles. Those fears have been compounded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's persistent anti-Israeli rhetoric.
Israel's concerns were heightened this week when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. would extend a "defense umbrella" over its Gulf Arab allies to prevent Iran from dominating the region "once they have a nuclear weapon."
The comments raised eyebrows in Israel.
"I was not thrilled to hear the American statement from yesterday that they will protect their allies with a nuclear umbrella, as if they have already come to terms with a nuclear Iran," Dan Meridor, Israel's minister of intelligence and atomic energy, told Army Radio. "I think that's a mistake."
Hours after Meridor spoke, Clinton clarified her remarks, saying she was "not suggesting any new policy" on Iran and continued to believe that "Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable."
Israeli officials and analysts played down the glitches in the Arrow tests, saying they were expected in such a complicated project and would not affect the long-term development of the system.
A statement from the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said the mission was an interception test and also exercised the Arrow system's interoperability with other elements of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system.
The tests of the Arrow II system took place over the past week off the coast of California, most recently on Wednesday, the defense officials said. But communication glitches between the missile and the radar led U.S. defense officials to abort the test before an intercepting missile could be fired, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the tests.
The Pentagon said the target missile was dropped from a C-17 aircraft. It said the radar system detected the target, but "not all test conditions to launch the Arrow Interceptor were met, and it was not launched." It said the results were being analyzed.
An operational version of Arrow II is partially deployed, and the U.S. and Israel are in the preliminary stages of developing an upgraded Arrow III.
The homegrown "Iron Dome" system is designed to bring down short-range rockets of the kind Palestinian and Lebanese militants use. Last week, Israeli officials reported a successful live test of the system.
The Arrow project was spurred largely by the failure of the U.S. military's Patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi Scud rockets that struck Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said tests of the same Arrow system in Israel earlier this year were "very successful." He said the recent tests were carried out in the U.S. because that would allow for greater distances than would be possible in Israel.
He said malfunctions of systems still in their experimental stage were to be expected and said other tests were called off on Friday and Monday.
The defense officials said the improved Arrow II was meant to intercept a dummy Iranian Shihab missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. But U.S. officials blocked the launch of an intercepting missile because of the communications glitch, the Israelis said.
Iran's Shihab-3 has a range of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers), putting Israel well within striking distance.
Isaac Ben-Israel, a retired general and weapons expert, said the interceptor wasn't fired because it is too expensive to use in a test that isn't expected to go according to plan. He said such glitches are common when developing new systems and he did not consider it a significant setback.
"I expect that within a short period of time, after they determine exactly what happened, they will repeat this experiment and then we will know if it works or not," Ben-Israel said.
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