A cinematic marketing show’: Israel’s air defence industry reflects on historic success
As Israelis on Monday weighed the possibility of escalation with Iran, officials in the security and economic spheres were considering the implications of the overwhelming success of the country’s Arrow-3 missile defence system.
An Arrow-3 test launch in Alaska in July 2019. Photo by Israeli Ministry of Defence
“It was an operational success, and more so it was a technological success as well,” Boaz Levy, president and CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, which produces the Arrow-3, told The Press Service of Israel.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, of the more than 320 drones and missiles launched by Iran on Saturday night, 99% were intercepted. While most of the UAVs were shot down by American, Jordanian, British and French forces, the Arrow-3 shot down the ballistic missiles at high altitudes. The system is also capable of shooting down missiles in space.
“Every warhead of the missiles sent from Iran was weighing up to 500 kg.,” Levy said. Comparing the speed of the missiles to the drones he said that the UAVs “took nine hours to arrive while the ballistic missiles took about 12 minutes to arrive.”
As ballistic missiles leave the atmosphere and then descend towards their targets, the Arrow-3 system “calculates the trajectory, and then we choose the right interceptor to launch for it.”
A Cinematic Marketing Show
Dr. Alex Coman, a senior financial analyst and professor at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, told TPS-IL that the Arrow-3’s performance should create a surge in global interest.
“It was a cinematic marketing show. There is no country in our league, certainly not ones that have faced hundreds of missiles fired at them in such a short period of time,” Coman said.
“The first ones who would want to acquire such defence systems are the Europeans, preparing against potential threats from Russia following the war in Ukraine,” Coman says. “And also in the Far East, there is a fear of Chinese invasions, so there might be customers as well. Anticipated sales are expected to be worthwhile, with significant potential for growth.”
In September, Germany signed a nearly $4.3 billion deal to purchase an Arrow-3 system, the system’s first sale to a foreign country. The first battery is expected to arrive in Germany by the end of 2025.
However, Coman stressed that because of the expense of developing and producing the Arrow-3, the Iranians could afford to overwhelm the defence system.
“If we have to deal with this kind of threat every Monday and Thursday, we will collapse financially,” Coman explained. “But that won’t happen because in that case a more serious warfare might develop here.”
Levy told TPS-IL that the company is planning for those kinds of possibilities.
“We are always working ahead, our engineers are already working for the future challenges”, he said. ”We’ve learned a lot that night and are enlarging the system’s abilities according to that.”
Israel is developing a multilayered aerial defence system that has drawn global attention.
The Iron Dome system put Israel on the map with its ability to shoot down short-range threats such as rockets, missiles and mortars.
The David’s Sling system is designed to intercept medium-range threats at high altitudes and speeds such as ballistic and cruise missiles, aircraft and drones.
C-Dome, the naval version of Israel’s Iron Dome system, made its first operational intercept on Monday night, shooting down a hostile drone over the Gulf of Aqaba.
Israel is also developing what may be the world’s first laser-based air defence system called the Iron Beam, with the hope of deploying it for operational use in 2025.
