Israel’s homegrown Arrow ballistic missile shield has been receiving improvements with each deployment in the country’s conflict with Iran, according to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
IAI CEO Boaz Levy explained in an interview with Business Insider that the state-owned company enhances the capability’s performance by analyzing all of Tehran’s airstrike operations against Tel Aviv, whether individual attacks or barrages.
This complex testing and development will enable the technology to further defend Israel in a potential third direct conflict with Iran.
Levy, also a chief engineer of the Arrow system, specified that the upgrades consist of “building blocks” with software improvements made following each engagement, sustaining critical benchmarks of the platform.
IAI’s optimization of the weapon began in 2024 when Tehran launched a surprise attack on Israel using more than 120 missiles and drones in April 2024.
A second large-scale assault six months later involved over 180 missiles, with most Iranian weapons in both conflicts reportedly intercepted.
“During this time, between April last year to this attack, we did have several upgrades of the systems,” Levy told the outlet.
“I believe that this is the right way to deal with it. So yes, we had lessons learned, and we improved the systems accordingly.”
Latest Conflict
Israel’s major attack on Iran this year began on June 13 when it launched a mission to degrade Tehran’s military bases and suspected nuclear infrastructure.
After full-power airstrikes on multiple sites, Iran retaliated by launching a wave of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel.
Levy did not disclose the quantity of adversarial missiles that the Arrow intercepted, but claimed that the defense system covered at least 90 percent of the projectiles it targeted.
“I think that Arrow performed as expected,” he said.
The Arrow Missile
IAI developed the Arrow missile family in collaboration with US defense contractor Boeing to provide the Israeli Defense Forces with an anti-ballistic missile protector on par with the American MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile.
It was designed in the 1990s and first used in 2000, with the warhead being capable of engaging threats in the upper atmosphere. A more advanced Arrow was then released in 2017 with the ability to hit targets in space.
The missile weighs 2,800 kilograms (6,173 pounds), has a length of 7 meters (23 feet), and a diameter of 800 millimeters (31 inches).
It can travel at hypersonic speeds (Mach 5 and above) and has a range of 150 kilometers (93 miles) depending on its configuration.
