Arrow 3 Missile Defence System: Germany took a big step after it received the first parts of the Arrow 3 long-range missile defense system. The handover took place during a formal event at an airbase south of Berlin. Reports from The Times of Israel say this delivery completes a €4-billion deal, which is the biggest defense export Israel has ever made.
Reuters also says Germany has now become the first country in Europe to use the Arrow 3 system, and this is the first time the system will work outside Israel or the United States on its own.
How Arrow 3 Works?
Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, explains that Arrow 3 is one part of the larger Arrow Weapon System. IAI calls this system the world’s first “operational, national, stand-alone Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile (ATBM) defence system.”
The system was made together by Israel’s defence research arm DDR&D and the US Missile Defense Agency. It is built to hit dangerous ballistic missiles when they are still high above Earth, even outside the atmosphere, so they never come close to the ground again. Arrow 3 is made to destroy a missile before it even re-enters the sky.
IAI also says the Arrow Weapon System is a layered network that works from the air and from the ground. It can target short-range, medium-range and even intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The full Arrow system has been in service since the year 2000, and it is now an important part of Israel’s missile-defense shield.
Arrow 3 Strong Features
The missile uses a two-stage interceptor system, which means it has a booster and then a sustainer stage. It uses a hit-to-kill warhead, and the missile can move fast and change direction easily during flight. The seeker on the missile uses long-range, high-resolution electro-optics to find its target.
IAI says the system has already proved itself in real battles. During the 2023-24 Iron Swords conflict, Arrow interceptors shot down many incoming ballistic missiles.
Reports from The Times of Israel say Israel’s air defense shield reached around 86% success against ballistic missiles that Iran launched. They also mention that this strong number got even better because Israel deployed upgraded Arrow systems just one week before the conflict started.
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Arrow 3’s Place in the Arrow Family
Arrow 3 takes care of the high-level threats, and Arrow 2 handles the lower-level layer. The system also gives the base for future upgrades like Arrow 4, which engineers are working on now to take on even more types of missile threats.
Arrow 3 remains important today because it can destroy missiles outside the atmosphere, respond very fast and keep the leak rate close to zero when it operates with other layers.
