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| Arrow 2 anti-ballistic air defense missile system |
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| The Arrow 2 is a short/medium range anti-ballistic air defense missile system developed jointly by IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) and United States. The United States and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to co-develop and co-fund the Arrow program on May 6, 1986. The Arrow missiles family was designed to for a theater missile defense system that would be more effective against ballistic missiles than the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile. Arrow 2 is able to intercept its targets above the stratosphere, high enough so that any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons do not scatter over Israel. The first successful tests of Arrow 2 were conducted without target missiles on July 30, 1995 and February 20, 1996. The first Arrow battery was deployed by Israeli Defence Forces in October 2000 and declared fully operational, with a second unit in 2002. The Israeli Defense Force announced its intention to procure 100 interceptors for each Arrow 2 battery. Furthermore, reports from 2010 suggest that Israel is developing a third Arrow 2 site in the Negev Desert to provide further redundancy in protecting civilian centers. |
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| Variants: |
| - Arrow 2 Block-2: A successful test of the Arrow 2 block-2 took place on January 5, 2003. Four missiles were launched towards four simulated targets in order to examine the interceptor's performance during special flight conditions as well as system performance during a sequence of launches.
- Arrow 2 Block-3: On February 11, 2007 an Arrow 2 block-3 successfully intercepted and destroyed a "Black Sparrow" target missile simulating a ballistic missile at high altitude. It was the first so-called distributed weapon system test conducted in Israel, which required two Arrow units deployed some 100 km (62 mi) apart to share data on incoming threats and coordinate launching assignments. It was also the first time the Link 16 data distribution system was used to connect two Arrow units, although the system had been used in previous tests to connect Arrow and Patriot batteries.
- Arrow 2 Block-4: On April 15, 2008 the Arrow weapon system successfully detected and made a simulated intercept of a new target missile, the "Blue Sparrow", a successor of the "Black Sparrow" capable of simulating "Scud-C/D" missiles and reportedly the Iranian Shahab-3 as well. During the test, a target missile was launched from an IAF F-15 at a height of 90,000 feet (27.5 km). The missile split into multiple warheads, making it harder to intercept it.
- Arrow 2 Block-5: IMDO recently launched initial definition of a new block-5 upgrade to the complete Arrow system that will merge the lower-tier Arrow 2 and exoatmospheric Arrow 3 into a single national missile defense system.
- Arrow 3: Israel Aerospace Industries announced in June 2009, that the Arrow 3 patented exoatmospheric interception method includes a two-stage interceptor, like the Arrow 2, but purely based on hit-to-kill technology. Arrow 3 should be able to intercept ballistic missiles, especially those carrying weapons of mass destruction, at altitudes of over 100 km, and in greater ranges. It could also be ship-based. Arrow 3 is faster than the Arrow 2 and slightly smaller, weighing nearly half. |
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| Technical Data |
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| Missile launcher unit | | The missile launcher unit of Arrow 2 consists of six erector-launchers tubes and ready-to-fire missiles, mounted at the rear of a two axles trailer. Each trailer-mounted erector–launcher weighs 35 tones when loaded with six launch tubes with ready-to-fire missiles. After firing the launchers can be reloaded in an hour. The system is transportable rather than mobile, as it can be moved to other prepared sites, but cannot be set up just anywhere. In firing position, the launch tubes are erected at the rear of the trailer and five hydraulic jacks are lowered on the ground, three at the front and two at the rear.
| | Missiles | | The Arrow 2 two-stage missile is equipped with solid propellant booster and sustainer rocket motors. The missile uses an initial burn to carry out a vertical hot launch from the container and a secondary burn to sustain the missile's trajectory towards the target at a maximum speed of Mach 9, or 2.5 km/s. The Arrow 2 has a terminally-guided interceptor warhead that detonates within 40 to 50m of its target. The Arrow 2 missile has a length of 7m, a diameter of 0.8m, and weighs 1,300kg. It contains a high explosive, focused fragmentation warhead and has a maximum range and altitude of 90 km and 50 km respectively. It has an accuracy within 4 m of the target.
| | Mobility | | The Arrow 2 erector launcher trailer is towed by a military truck. | | Command and control vehicles | | A missile launch platoon of Arrow 2 consists of the Hazelnut Tree truck-mounted Launch Control Centre (LCC), developed by IAI MLM, with four or eight missile launch trailers. There are microwave and radio data and voice communications links between the launch centre and the radar command and control centre. The launch system can be located up to 300 km from the site selected for the radar command and control centre. The Arrow 2 uses the Green Pine or ELM-2080 as warning and fire control radar (FCR) developed by lta Electronic Industries subsidiary of IAI Electronic Group. The Green Pine radar operates in search, detection, tracking and missile guidance modes simultaneously. It can detect targets at ranges up to about 500km and is able to track targets up to speeds over 3,000m/s. The radar illuminates the target and guides the Arrow missile to within 4m of the target. The battle management and fire control center is the "Golden Citron" developed by Tadiran Electronics Limited. It is used to manage the threat interceptions fully automatically, including against single and multiple threats. Arrow 2’s command and control system is capable of tracking and responding to 14 targets at a time and it is able to detect and track missiles from 500 km away with an intercept range of around 10 km. The "Brown Hazelnut" launch control center (LCC) is located at the launch site, up to 300 km from the "Golden Citron" fire control center. It employs microwave and radio data and voice communications links to the "Green Pine" and "Golden Citron". | | | | Green Pine warning and fire control radar | | | The Green Pine or ELM-2080 is the warning and fire control radar (FCR) of Arrow 2 anti-ballistic air defense missile system.
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a | | | | | | | | Golden Citron battle management and fire control center | | | The Golden Citron is the battle management and fire control center of Arrow 2 anti-ballistic air defense missile system.
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a | | | | | | | | Brown Hazelnut launch control center | | | | | The Brown Hazelnut is the launch control center of Arrow 2 anti-ballistic air defense missile system.
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a | | | | | | | | Specifications | | Back to top | | Type | | Anti-ballistic air defense missile system | | Country users | | Israel | | Designer Country | | Israel and United States | | Warhead | | - Directed high explosive fragmentation
- 150 kg
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| | | Armament | | Six missiles in individual container | | Range missile | | 90 to 150 km | | Guidance missile system | | passive infrared seeker and active radar seeker | | Radar and command station | | Green Pine ELM-2080 warning and fire control radar Golden Citron battle management and fire control center (FCR), Brown Hazelnut Launch Control Center
(LCC) | | | | | | |
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