- Thursday, December 10, 2015

Israel is routinely threatened by missile attack, whether it be from Kassam short range projectiles from Gaza and the West Bank to more advanced, longer-range weapons from Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran is also developing and testing long-range ballistic missiles that could hit anywhere in Israel and possibly carry nuclear weapons in the future. Hezbollah is reported to have approximately 100,000 missiles that can strike anywhere in Israel.

The BBC reports Israel scored a direct hit with its Arrow-3 high-altitude system being developed in conjunction with the United States. An Arrow interceptor destroyed a simulated warhead above the earth’s atmosphere, which would be the trajectory of a missile like the Iranian Shahab-3.

The Israeli defense ministry hailed Thursday’s test as a “major milestone.” A similar test a year ago failed because the system was unable to lock onto the target. Israel’s Iron Dome short-range protection capability gained notoriety during the 2014 conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which saw thousands of rockets launched against the Jewish state. Very few scored direct hits on Israeli targets as the Iron Dome destroyed most of them in mid-air. Israel is soon to declare the “David’s Sling” mid-range missile defense system operational which will mainly defend against Iranian and Hezbollah missile threats.

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