WarSclerotic

The Ministry of Defense and the US Missile Defense Agency successfully held a missile drill on Tuesday morning in the Mediterranean Sea and in a testing area at an Israel Air Force base in central Israel, a short time after Russia said it had detected a missile launch in the area.The experiment, conducted by the Ministry of Defenses’ Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, occurred at 9:15 a.m. It involved the firing and tracking of a Sparrow-type target missile.”The experiment tested enhanced capabilities of a new type of target missile from the Sparrow series,” the Ministry of Defense said. “Arrow anti-missile defense systems, including radars and a command and control system, were also tested,” the ministry added.The time of the missile drill coincides with the report by Moscow that it had detected two ballistic missiles launched from the same region of the sea.

The Russian embassy in Damascus, however, was quick to affirm that there was no evidence of a missile strike on Syria.

Tensions in the region are high, following US President Barack Obama’s recent declaration that he believes the US should strike the Syrian regime over its alleged use of chemical weapons against its own population.  Russia has strenuously objected to such a move, arguing that the Obama administration does not have sufficient proof of such a chemical weapons attack.

The missile drill

The missile was picked up by the Magnificent Pine radar system, which serves the Arrow ballistic missile batteries, and has better detection capabilities than its predecessor radar, called Green Pine.

In Tuesday’s test, Magnificent Pine passed on the incoming missile’s stats to an interception command center, which observed and analyzed the projectile.

Additional detection and traction systems followed the missile’s path at the same time.

The test saw the participation of officials from the Ministry of Defense, the Pentagon, and defense corporations involved in the project, which is led by Rafael Advanced Systems.

Rafael developed the Sparrow missile series, while the Arrow defense batteries are being developed by the Malam factory of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

The Magnificent Pine radar was developed by Elta, a subsidiary of IAI, while the command and control center used in the test was created by Tadiran Electronic Systems, a subsidiary of Elbit.

Israeli defense officials are developing four layers of missile defenses: The Iron Dome system for short and medium range rockets, David’s Sling (under development) for medium and long-range rockets, the Arrow 2 anti-ballistic shield, which intercepts projectiles in the upper atmosphere, and the Arrow 3 system (under development), which will intercept enemy missiles in space.

An Arrow 3 missile was successfully test launched in Israel in February. Travelling at twice the speed of a tank shell, the Arrow 3 interceptor turns into space vehicle after leaving the atmosphere. It carries out several swift maneuvers as it locks on to its target. It then lunges directly at the incoming projectile for a head-on collision, relying on the kinetic impact alone to destroy its target.

Jpost.com staff contributed to this report.