Israeli Arrow II missile defence test fails

Jerusalem: Malfunctions have compelled a much-touted Israeli Arrow II missile-defence test to be aborted over the past week on three occasions, Israeli defence officials said Thursday. The tests were being carried out off the coast of California.

The tests were shifted to the US as greater distances are available here than in Israel.

An upgraded version of the Arrow II never took off on an interception flight because of communication glitches between the missile and the radar.

The system is being developed by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd and Boeing Co.

The Arrow is part of a multi-layered missile defence system that is meant to provide Israel defence from a range of rocket threats from locally assembled short-range rockets to longer-range threats from Iran.

Israeli defence officials said malfunctions of systems still in an experimental stage were only to be expected and that tests of the Arrow system in Israel, earlier in the year, had been "very successful."