AL-Monitor:
The growing nuclear threat from North Korea has rekindled American interest in looking for backup missile defense options, but several obstacles hinder the adoption of Israel’s US-funded, battle-tested system by the Pentagon.
Over the past decade, the United States has invested more than a half-billion dollars into the Arrow 3 high-altitude anti-ballistic missile system as part of a 32-year-old agreement to jointly develop an indigenous Israeli anti-missile capability. Arrow 3 interceptors were delivered in January 2017, and the US and Israeli missile defense agencies successfully tested the system in central Israel last week.
In a press statement, the US Missile Defense Agency called the success of the test a “major milestone in the operational capabilities of the State of Israel and its ability to defend itself against current and future threats in the region.” It wasn’t the system’s first flight, however: An Arrow defense battery was credited with shooting down a Syrian anti-aircraft missile targeting Israeli fighter jets in March 2017.
