Isareli Joint U.S Arrow I/IV and LGM-30 Minutema III Test SuccessFul

Arrow anti-ballistic missile
An Arrow anti-ballistic missile successfully intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile target today during a joint United States/Israel test program. The test was part of the ongoing Arrow System Improvement Program (ASIP). This was the twelfth Arrow intercept test and the seventh test of the complete Arrow system. The test was conducted at the Point Mugu Sea Range in California. The objective of the test was to demonstrate the Arrow system's improved performance against a target that represents a threat to Israel. The test represented a realistic scenario that could not have been tested in Israel due to test-field safety restrictions.

An Arrow anti-ballistic missile is launched as part of the ongoing United States/Israel Arrow System Improvement Program. The missile intercepted a short-range target west of San Nicolas Island on the Pt. Mugu Sea Range in California. This was the twelfth Arrow intercept test and the seventh test of the complete Arrow system.

LGM-30 Minuteman III

In the United States, LGM-30 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) have been fired in tests on at least 11 separate occasions from June 2004 to September 2006 over distances of 6,500km to over 8,000km between Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands.

Tests of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) and Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) took place on at least six occasions in the same period. These are interceptor missiles, so each intercept test also involves the launching of a target ballistic missile. Eight such intercept tests have been held to date.

Similarly, flight tests of various versions of Patriot missile interceptors (PAC-3 and Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missiles) usually involve the “ripple firing” of two interceptors against two ballistic missiles
simulating an attack, adding up to four missiles in each test. The target missiles are usually PAAT
(Patriot-as-a-Target, older Patriot missiles modified to represent a short-range incoming ballistic missile). Tests of this nature were held at least six times between June 2004 and June 2006. One such test, on 18 November 2004, involved some six missiles in the air simultaneously. In another instance, in early September 2004, Patriots were fired at both a short-range ballistic missile and at a cruise missile.

In the framework of missile defence research and development, the ballistic missiles acting as targets are also test-fired on their own, as in the test of an orbital long-range target missile from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii on 28 April 2006, or of a long-range Strategic Target System (STARS) rocket from the Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island in Alaska on 23 February 2006. A medium-range target missile, the Castor IVB target vehicle, also underwent a test flight on 4 August 2005. On 6 October 2004, the Missile Defense Agency launched a suborbital rocket to test the tracking abilities of missile defence systems.


Conversely, interceptor missiles also get flight-tested on their own on occasions, as was the case with the Ground-based Interceptor (GBI) missile on 14 December 2005, or of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile on 22 November 2005. Tests carried out in the United States can also involve interceptors developed in international cooperation and, apparently, target ballistic missiles of foreign origin. Thus the test on 29 July 2004, near Los Angeles, of the Arrow missile defence system jointly developed by the United States and Israel involved the use as target of a Scud ballistic missile reportedly confiscated from Iraq.

Arrow-2 Ballistic Missile Test