As Israel faces the grim prospect of potential Tactical Ballistic Missile (TBM) strikes with Nuclear, Biological or Chemical (NBC) warheads not only from its adversary nations but also from “sub-states” (read terrorist groups) those could be supplied with Scud type TBMs by “sponsor” nations, to tackle such threats the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) prefers deployment of a combination of Ballistic Missile Defences (BMD) systems with IAI/Boeing Arrow 2 Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missiles (ATBM) developed by MLM Division of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) presently forming the centre piece of Israel’s layered system of strategic missile defence under Homa (Fence)/Israel Missile Defence Organisation (IMDO). The first battery at Palmachim Airbase south of Tel Aviv became operational in October 2000 followed by one in Ein Shemer to the south of Haifa in 2002. They are deployed in such a manner that the coverage of the systems overlaps over vital military, commercial installations and concentrated civilian population. A third battery became operational at Tal Shahar in 2012. The system practically forming National Missile Defence (NMD) in Israeli context is standalone yet integrated with national command & control, and has the capability to provide early warning for itself and of dealing with multiple threats. In Israel Arrow 2 functions as the uppertier of a multi-tier combined air defence/ ATBM network. The middle tier comprises of United States and Israeli Patriot MIM- 104 PAC-2/PAC-3 and United States Navy (USN) ship-borne AEGIS systems in addition to IDF David’s Sling Weapon System (DSWS). Iron Dome forms the lower tier. The refined and leaner (1300-kg) Arrow 2, was first tested in 1995 being derived from Chetz (Arrow) 1 technology demonstrator, a project initiated by the United States Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) to be developed by IAI. Arrow 2 is meant to intercept tactical ballistic missiles just as they start re-entering atmosphere after reaching the highest point in their flight trajectory. The first missile was delivered by IAI on 29 November 1998 to Israeli Ministry of Defence. Subsequently a successful full system interception test was held on 1 November, 1999.
On 14 March, 2000, the first complete Arrow 2 battery was rolled out in a ceremony at Palmachim Airbase. In February 2003, IAI signed an agreement with Boeing to establish the production infrastructure to manufacture components of the Arrow missile in the United States with Boeing responsible for the production and co-ordination of approximately 50% of the missile components in United States while IAI undertakes integration and final assembly of the missile in Israel. Under Arrow System Improvement Programme (ASIP) being carried out jointly by Israel and United States Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation (BMDO), a real (as against simulated) Scud-B Short-Range Ballistic Missile (SRBM) was successfully intercepted and destroyed at an altitude of 40-km at Naval Air Station (NAS) Point Mugu naval test range in California in 29 July 2004. In December 2005, an Arrow 2 Block 3 missile successfully intercepted a target at an unspecified but reported record low altitude.
In 11 February 2007, the system successfully intercepted and destroyed a Rafael Black Sparrow target missile, simulating a ballistic missile; at high altitude in a distributed weapon system test with two Arrow units deployed some 100- km apart. On 7 April, 2009 the Arrow 2 Block 4 was successfully tested against the Blue Sparrow (compact Blue Sparrow 2 can even be launched from a fighter sized aircraft) target missile which simulates more agile ballistic missiles, such as the Iranian Shahab-3. The Blue Sparrow target missile was developed by Rafael as an air-launched target simulating medium-range ballistic missile of the Scud B/D class. Rafael is already building a larger version known as ‘Silver Sparrow’. The Sparrow targets have a modular warhead section carrying different payloads such as inert, high explosive or water. This 8.39-m long missile weighs over 3-tons and as mentioned, will simulate Shahab-3 class missiles (range 1500-2000-km) for the testing of the Arrow-3 interceptor. The Silver Sparrow uses a single stage solid rocket propellant, and shares a common re-entry vehicle with the mid-range Blue Sparrow. The Silver Sparrow is also considered as a candidate for air-launching of Rafael’s future LiteSat micro-satellite, providing Operationally Responsive Space capability supporting ad-hoc requirement for satellite imagery. ASIP acquires importance in light of emergence and proliferation of more formidable and lethal ballistic missiles in Israel’s neighbourhood. The operational Arrow Weapon System (AWS) is currently the Block 3 and Block 4. The final firing test conducted on 22 February 2011 validated the block 4 missile performance, which scored a direct hit on this test. Among the improvements introduced in the Arrow 2 Block 4 missile are refined midcourse guidance section, improved target identification and discrimination and enhanced lethality. Other improvements were implemented throughout the system, increasing the situational assessment and overall target engagement, battle management.
An Arrow battery is equipped with typically four or eight launch trailers, each with six launch tubes and ready-to-fire missiles, a truck mounted IAI Hazelnut Tree Launch Control Centre (LCC), a truck mounted communications centre, and a trailer mounted Elisra Citron Tree Fire Control Centre (FCC) and the units of a mobile Green Pine early warning radar system. There are microwave and radio data and voice communications (Link-16) between the LCC and the radar command and control centre with the launch system deployable up to 300-km from the site selected for the radar command & control centre offering unparalleled protection and flexibility to the AWS. The two-stage Arrow 2 ATBM is equipped with solid propellant booster and sustainer rocket motors.
Arrow 2 is launched vertically, separately or in salvos, giving 360-degrees coverage to each battery. The Green Pine L-band, phased array, dualmode (detection and fire control) radar determines the intercept point and thereby up-linking very accurate data to the Arrow 2 guiding the intercepting missile to within 4-m of the target. 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 per second. Thrust Vector Control (TVC) is used in the boost and sustained phases of flight. At the ignition of the second stage sustainer motor, the first stage assembly separates. The Kill Vehicle (KV) section of the missile, containing the warhead, fusing and the terminal Electro- Optical (EO) seeker is equipped with four aerodynamically controlled moving fins to give low altitude interception capability.
The dual mode missile seeker has a passive infrared seeker (Raytheon developed indium antimonite focal plane array) for the acquisition and tracking of TBM and an active radar seeker developed by Lockheed Martin, used to home on air breathing targets at low altitudes. After Arrow 2 is brought to the best engagement point on the TBM, its EO sensor acquires the target to allow very near pass and then activate the Rafael developed high explosive directed blast fragmentation warhead which is capable of destroying a target within a 50-m radius or sufficiently deflecting it beyond the confines of defended territory. The Arrow also has the capability to simultaneously intercept a salvo of more than five incoming missiles, with the target missiles arriving within a 30-seconds span. The ELTA Electronics subsidiary of IAI developed the EL/M-2080 Green Pine Early Warning & Fire Control (EW & FC) radar for the AWS system.
The Green Pine radar has a proven track record demonstrated in over twenty successful ballistic missile intercepts. The radar includes the trailer mounted antenna array, the power generator, a cooling system and a control centre. Developed from the ELTA Music phased array radar, Green Pine is an dual mode, electronically scanned, solid state, phased array radar operating at L-band in the range 500-MHz to 1,000-MHz, or 1,000-MHz to 2,000-MHz, weighs 60-t and comprises of 2,000 transmit-receive modules. Green Pine is said to be capable of detecting ballistic missiles from a range of up to 500-km and is able to track 30 targets up to speed of over 3-km/s while intercept of the attacking missile may occur 90-km away at an altitude of 10 to 50-km.
The long range of Green Pine radar system ensures that a second and third shot can be taken at the incoming ballistic missiles if the first shot fails to secure the “kill”. The ballistic missiles are again intercepted at a much higher altitude (exo-atmospheric or endo-atmospheric) to prevent them from disintegrating as they approach lower altitude, thus “faking” multiple targets on radar screens. Israel also receives data from the United States Defence Space Programme (DSP) early warning satellites and Boeing RC-135S Cobra Ball intelligence aircraft capable of picking up rapid movement or a rocket launch flash. Interestingly India placed an order and received its first Green Pine EW & FC radar in 2001 and has since been integrated with the country’s indigenous missile defence system as the Swordfish radar system. At least two sites are currently operational – northeast of Bangalore, and on India’s northeast coast. The Green Pine radar’s strategic value along the Indian-Pakistani border is well appreciated covering all of Pakistan’s military command centres and bases between Islamabad, the capital, and the Indian frontier reportedly providing India with surveillance of Pakistan’s nuclear centres and missile sites and relevant Telemetry Intelligence (TELINT) data. An enhanced version of Green Pine was the key to India’s first Prithvi BDM test. The enhanced Super Green Pine/Green Pine Block B/Great Pine pushes the detection range to 800 to 900-km.
Tadiran Electronics Limited Golden Citron Tree Battle Management/Fire Control Centre (BM/FCC) capable of conducting multiple, simultaneous (up to 14) interceptions and includes ten battle stations. Launches are controlled by Hazelnut Tree launcher control centre. Citron Tree, which is trailer mounted, downloads the radar data along with data from other sources and uses powerful signal processing tools to manage the threat interceptions along with man-in-the-loop intervention capability at every stage. The BM/FCC has computer workstations for the Sky Situation Coordinator, Intelligence Officer, Post Mission Analysis Officer, Resource Officer and Senior Engagement Officer as well as the Commander’s station. Citron Tree BM/FCC has three banks of operator consoles laid out in a “U” shape. The Centre Commander takes his position at the centre not only to oversee the engagement but also has links to the other parts of the battery, as well as to the Air Force Headquarters. Extensive communication systems ensure National Policy to govern the ATBM engagements as information available includes incoming TBM tracks, predicted impact points and engagement profiles. The Engagement Officer sits at the right of the Centre Commander assigning targets to four other engagement officers sitting on the right-hand leg of the “U”. Each is assigned a geographical area to defend and two of the officers have an overview of the lower-tier Patriot Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile/Surface-to-Air Missile (ATBM/ SAM) batteries.
The Resource Officer sits at the left of the Centre Commander and monitors the status and readiness of the missiles. On the left of the “U” the Sky Picture Officer who is in contact with the home-front command and predicts the impact point to alert the civil authorities. An Intelligence Officer and a Post Mission Analysis/Debrief Officer manage the recordings. The workstations display a large electronic map showing the area of battle. Predicted and confirmed launch sites are colour coded to show priority sites. “Link- 16”, “Tadil-J”, communications is being developed to allow inter-operability with Patriot PAC-2 FC units. Assigned targets can be handed over to the Patriot’s AN/ MPQ-53 phased array fire control radar. Tests carried out by the United States and Israel has successfully linked the Arrow and United States Patriot PAC-2/3 and also the Arrow and IDF Patriot version.
There is one disadvantage of Arrow and this is its “narrow specialisation” because in contrast to its counterparts this system is practically unable to fight aircraft in terrain following mode and requires additional Patriot PAC- 2/3 batteries to provide anti-aircraft cover. Patriot batteries are in turn supported by additional Beyond-The-Horizon (BTH) radar, array of satellites and Boeing E-8 Joint-Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS) reconnoitring system. Meanwhile the United States and Israel continues development of an upper-tier component (including an exo-atmospheric interceptor) to the Israeli Missile Defence architecture, commonly known as Arrow 3, based on an architecture definition study conducted in 2006-2007, determining the need for the upper-tier component to be integrated into Israel’s Ballistic Missile Defence system in addition to Arrow 2 Block 4 ATBM. The KV of Arrow 3 is to be propelled by rocket motor and equipped with flexible nozzle to offer exceptionally large divert capability, while the state-of-the-art long-range acquisition high-resolution gimballed EO seeker will obtain hemispheric coverage. By measuring the seeker’s line of sight relative to the vehicle’s motion, the KV would employ ‘proportional navigation’ deflecting the KV to divert its course and align exactly at target’s fight path, hence achieving an accurate Hit-To-Kill (HTK) even at very high closing speeds and over long distances. Thus two-stage Arrow 3 interceptor is part of the AWS which is the world’s first operational, national, stand-alone ATBM defence system, also effective against Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM).
Integrating seamlessly into the AWS and complementing the current and future blocks of the Arrow 2 interceptor, the Arrow 3 ATBM enables upper-tier multiple engagement opportunities. Arrow 3 and Arrow 2 Block 4 are expected to form the top and upper layers, with Rafael David’s Sling providing the mid-tier and lower tiers, defending against tactical missiles, long range rockets, cruise missiles and attack aircraft. The lowlevel will be protected by Rafael’s Iron Dome Countering short-range rockets (C-RAM) and 155-mm artillery shells. The spaceflight upper-tier portion of IMDO, Arrow 3, was declared operational on 18 January 2017, operating at greater speeds, greater range and at greater altitudes than Arrow 2, intercepting ballistic missiles during the space-flight portion of their trajectory. According to the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency, Arrow 3 may serve as an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapon. On 17 March 2017, the Arrow missile scored its first operational intercept when it shot down a Syrian S-200 (SA-5 Gammon) Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) fired at an Israeli aircraft.
The Green Pine radar
Sayan Majumdar (All photos: IAI)