Israel announces first Arrow-3 operational intercept

JERUSALEM — Israeli forces have intercepted a long-range ballistic missile over the Red Sea region using the Arrow 3 air defense system, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday.

The Arrow 3 is an exo-atmospheric missile capable of long-range interception by traveling through the lowest layer of space during its flight path. This week’s intercept marks the first operational success since the weapon entered service in 2017.

The system shot down a ground-launched missile fired from Yemen by the Houthis, as part of that organization’s effort to join the Hamas terror group and distract Israel from its war efforts in Gaza.

The Arrow 3 system is co-developed and co-produced by the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) in the Israel Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), led by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) as the prime contractor of the project.

Israel announced the sale of Arrow 3 missile-defense system to Germany in a $3.5 billion deal in August, after getting U.S. approval for the deal, marking it as Israel’s largest defense export ever.

The Israeli military said earlier this month that the predecessor system, Arrow-2, had notched an intercept, also its first, against an Ayyash 250 missile, launched by Hamas in Gaza towards Eilat in southern Israel.

Tzally Greenberg is the Israel correspondent for Defense News. He has experience reporting on economic affairs as well as defense and cyber companies.

耶路撒冷——以色列国防部周四宣布，以色列军队使用“箭-3”防空系统在红海地区拦截了一枚远程弹道导弹。

“箭-3”导弹是一种外大气层导弹，其飞行路径穿过大气层最低层，能够进行远程拦截。本周的拦截行动是该导弹自2017年服役以来取得的首次作战成功。

该系统击落了一枚由也门胡塞武装发射的地面导弹，这是该组织加入哈马斯恐怖组织并分散以色列在加沙战争精力的行动的一部分。

Arrow 3 系统由以色列国防部下属的以色列导弹防御组织 (IMDO) 和美国导弹防御局 (MDA) 共同开发和生产，由以色列航空航天工业公司 (IAI) 担任该项目的主要承包商。

以色列在8月份宣布向德国出售价值35亿美元的“箭-3”导弹防御系统，此前该交易已获得美国的批准，这笔交易成为以色列有史以来最大的国防出口。

以色列军方本月早些时候表示，其前身系统 Arrow-2 已经成功拦截了一枚由哈马斯从加沙向以色列南部埃拉特发射的 Ayyash 250 导弹，这也是该系统的首次拦截。

扎利·格林伯格是《防务新闻》的以色列记者。他拥有丰富的经济事务以及国防和网络安全公司报道经验。