JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The U.S.-funded Arrow missile was declared operational by its Israeli manufacturer on Monday after a successful test in which it struck a target missile over the Mediterranean.
Israeli officials said the system would not be deployed until next year, but was already capable of intercepting and destroying an incoming ballistic missile.
"The system is complete, and is therefore operationally ready,'' said Ori Orr, board chairman of state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), main contractor of the Arrow.
Evening television newscasts in Israel led with footage of the Arrow blasting off from the deck of an Israeli naval vessel, streaking toward and striking a target missile within seconds.
Orr said that after tests spanning nine years, "today's was the first test of the entire system, truly in a real exercise, with radar that acquired the target, a system that calculated intercept data, and a missile that went out and hit the target.''
It was the seventh test firing of an Arrow since the U.S.-Israeli project was launched in 1988 as part of the Reagan Administration's now-defunct Star Wars program.
Designed to intercept missiles at altitudes between 10 and 40 kilometers (six and 25 miles), the Arrow project was kicked into high gear by the failure of U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles to combat Iraqi Scuds that slammed into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
The project's price tag is expected to exceed $2 billion by 2010, with direct U.S. funding accounting for some $700 million.
"The Americans are aware of the results of the test and are themselves certainly happy over the great success,'' Orr said.
Foreign governments, notably Israel's regional strategic ally Turkey, have shown interest in purchasing the Arrow.
But Orr turned aside questions over possible sales.
Not for sale yet
"At the moment no one is dealing with selling the Arrow. At the moment we must produce the quantities that we need for our own defense,'' he said in an interview with Israel's army radio.
Officials expect the first of three projected Arrow batteries to be deployed next year in the Tel Aviv area, Israel's main population center and the primary target of the 39 Iraqi Scuds missiles that struck the nation in 1991.
As a next step, Israel is expected to ask its patron ally Washington for aid in funding an allied project, a sophisticated drone designed to fly into and destroy enemy missile sites.
Israel rejects criticism that an operational Arrow will fuel an accelerated Middle East missile race, arguing that Syria, Iraq, and Iran, all formally at war with the Jewish state, will arm themselves at full speed regardless.
Israeli intelligence assessments have said Syria has an arsenal of hundreds of missiles easily capable of reaching the Jewish state, and that Iran is building nuclear warheads to fit on missiles with enough range to reach Israel.
David Ivry, Israel's new ambassador to Washington, a driving force behind the Arrow as a former air force chief and senior defense ministry figure, was asked after the Monday test if the Middle East missile race might soon render the Arrow obsolete.
"The race will continue,'' Ivry told Israel Channel Two Television.
"It's always better to be the one who is one step ahead, and at this point we are in a situation that is not bad.''
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