Residents of cities throughout Israel had front-row seats to a test of the IDF's long-range missile defense system Tuesday.
The Israeli Defense Ministry, together with the American Missile Defense Agency (MDA), conducted a drill simulating a ballistic missile attack by Iran on Israel, firing a single Arrow (Hetz) 2 missile in what was described as a successful operation.
"The Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) of DDR&D and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency conducted today an intercept test of the Arrow 2 interceptor missile," the defense ministry said in a statement. "The Arrow 2 is an operational system currently providing the Arrow Weapon System (AWS) with an interceptor engagement capability and the test was conducted at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea.
"An Arrow 2 missile was launched and performed its flight sequence as planned. The results are being analyzed by program engineers."
After a summer in which the skies above Israeli cities - including in the center - were often peppered with similar smoke trails and puffs of smoke as the Iron Dome intercepted short and medium-range rockets fired by Gazan terrorists, the Arrow missile defense system is designed to intercept long-range ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles) of the type currently held by Iran.
It constitutes one of several layers of defense for Israel in the event of an attack, and is part of a joint project between the Israeli and United States militaries.
Whereas the Arrow 2 is geared for interception within the atmosphere, the Arrow 3 - which was not involved in the latest drill - goes higher still, taking out missiles before they even reenter the earth's atmosphere.