The US-Israel partnership for developing Arrow 4 air-defense system progressing
as per plan, according to latest reports. This assumes importance as the two allies,
the US and Israel, face serious threats from countries such as Iran, Russia, and China.
There are high hopes from Arrow 4 as it will see the expertise of two advanced nations
being channelized for its development. Air Defense is a complex process
and designing an efficient one is a challenge.
US and Israel do know a thing or two when it comes
to air defense and a collaborative effort could be a real game-changer.
Arrow 4 is supposed to be a single counter for several kinds of offensive weapons.
In this video Defense Updates reports on how Israel and U.S joint development project - Arrow 4
interceptor missile will defeat emerging threats? Let's get started.
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Israel has a multi-layered air defense system designed to tackle a variety of different weapons.
This includes Iron Dome for design to knock down unguided rockets, mortars , artillery
that are periodically launched by Hamas and Hezbollah at Israel.
Israel also fields David’s Sling and U.S built Patriot surface-to-air missiles
counter threats like aircraft and cruise missiles.
The top layer consists of two types of Arrow missiles - Arrow-2 counters short- to medium-range
ballistic missiles, while the Arrow-3 takes on medium- and intermediate-range weapons.
Israel began developing the Arrow in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War when there
was increasing evidence that ballistic missiles would see extensive use in the Middle East.
Arrow 4 has been conceptualized for emerging threats and since both
Israel & U.S countries are at the crosshair, there is an accord to take it forward together.
Arrow 4 is supposed to tackle 3 kinds of systems:
1. Hypersonic Cruise Missiles: These missiles use a Scramjet engine. The scramjet is an innovation
on the Ramjet. While the Ramjet engine can power flight to supersonic speeds, scramjet can enable
the missiles to reach hypersonic speeds. These engines have no moving parts, like the compressors
and turbines used in the turbofan engines found on conventional jet planes. They rely
on the huge pressures created by fast airflow into the engine to ignite the fuel and generate thrust.
2. Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV): HGVs are the latest crop of weapons.
HGV is launched to extremely high altitudes using Ballistic Missile
where it skips across the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The vehicle then separates from
the carrier and glides back to the earth towards its intended target attaining hypersonic speed.
HGVs combines the speed of ballistic missile & maneuverability of cruise missiles
in a single platform. The current crop of ballistic missile defense systems
can calculate the trajectory of incoming missiles since they follow a predefined parabolic path.
But with HGV, this tracking methodology will not work and hence are almost impossible to intercept.
3. MIRV enabled ballistic missiles:
These missiles can release multiple warheads through Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles
(MIRVs) and can overwhelm a missile defense system through saturation effect.
Arrow 4 missile is being jointly developed by the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO)
and US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) It has been a work in progress since 2017.
In February 2021, it was disclosed that Arrow 4 air defense system
is being designed to counter new types of threats.
In July, Arrow program lead Israeli Aerospace Industries
(IAI) and Lockheed Martin signed a memorandum agreeing to cooperate on the development.
Boeing which had co-developed the preceding Arrow 3 lost out.
Some reports suggest that Lockheed Martin will eventually
also take over the production of additional Arrow 3 missiles.
Arrow 4 is expected to be integrated into the Arrow family's framework.
An Arrow battery has four components: a massive Elta EL/M-2080
Green Pine radar with a range of 500 miles or 805 km, a Citron Tree battle management control system
that can takes care of 14 intercepts parallelly, the Hazelnut launch control center, and 6 to 8
trailer-based erector-launchers, each having six Arrow 2 or Arrow 3 interceptor missiles.
This partnership is expected to further solidify the economic and technology-sharing relationship
between Israel and the United States, especially when it comes to developing air defense systems
Viewers may note that between 2008 and 2019, Israel reportedly received $3.8 billion in
U.S. aid for the development and procurement of various aspects of the Arrow Weapon System.
Israel does have excellent know-how in this field which is evident from the performance
Iron Dome system earlier this year. The U.S. Army recently test-fired one
of two Iron Dome Defense Systems acquired in the last two years.
According to a recent statement by the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, soldiers
from the 3-43 Air Defense Artillery Battalion “engaged eight cruise missile surrogate targets
as part of a coordinated performance test and live-fire event.”
Russia has already deployed two hypersonic weapons - Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile and
Avangard HGV. China has developed DF-17 missile along with DF-ZF Hypersonic Glide Vehicle.
Arrow 4 is expected to counter these kinds of threats.