Senior Israeli defense officials are publicly proclaiming the reliability of their Arrow anti-ballistic missile interceptor in what appears to be a clear deterrence warning to Iran not to try and launch any nuclear missile strike against Israel.
According to the developer, IAI, the Arrow Weapons System was designed to protect "against the rising threat of Theater Ballistic Missiles (TBMs), carrying various types of warheads... Utilizing the uniquely effective ARROW II interceptor, the system detects, intercepts and destroys incoming TBMs and provides a large defended footprint, allowing the protection of important strategic assets, as well as civilian population centers." In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, a high-ranking IDF officer said that the Arrow 2 ABM system is capable of intercepting and destroying any Iranian missiles, even were they to carry nuclear warheads.
"We will shoot all of [Iran's missiles] down," he told the Post. "The Arrow knows how to intercept the Shahab missile."
In December 2005, Israel carried out a highly successful test of the Arrow-2 system against a ballistic missile configured to perform like a Shahab-3. Reflecting the success of that test, the Israeli officer said it was now able to detect even a missile carrying a split warhead and armed with decoys meant to fool the anti-missile system.
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