The Arrow-3, largely funded by the United States, is designed to destroy salvos of long-range Shehab and Sejil intermediate-range ballistic missiles that are currently deployed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or are expected to be added to their armory in the coming years.

The Israelis believe Iran currently has 100-200 Shehab-3B missiles operational and that Tehran is planning to unleash them in broadsides against the Jewish state in the event that hostilities break out.

Recent photos of Iranian test-firings showed four Shehabs being launched together.

IAI displayed a full-sized model of the two-stage Arrow-3 at the Paris Air Show in June. It is slightly smaller than the Arrow-2 missiles currently in service in Israel, but it is intended to engage and intercept clusters of hostile missiles at higher altitudes in the upper atmosphere.

"With the new Arrow-3 and the latest blocks of Arrow-2, the Arrow Weapon System becomes the world's first multi-tier unified missile defense system designed to reach a near-zero leakage rate," according to Uri Sinai, general manager of IAI's missile division.

Production of the Arrow-2 is continuing, and that variant will overlap with Arrow-3 when it starts production. According to Joseph Weiss, IAI's corporate vice president and general manager, the last two Arrow-2 test-launches were "at the edge of the (performance) envelope."

The latest missiles produced by the Iranians, whose ballistic weapons program seems to have been accelerated in recent months, have been stretching the Arrow-2's capabilities.

But Weiss told Jane's Missiles & Rockets he is confident the Arrow-3 would be able to counter them in the foreseeable future. He said Arrow-3 production is expected to commence "in a few years."

Arrow-2 has undergone several upgrades, and its Israeli-developed Green Pine radar system, able to engage multiple long-range targets simultaneously, has also been upgraded and is known as the Super Green Pine.

An Arrow-2 fired from Palmachim air force base on the Mediterranean coast south of Tel Aviv on April 7 destroyed a ballistic target launched from a high-altitude aircraft in a test, its third successful firing in a row.

Under an agreement with IAI, Boeing is the prime contractor for the Arrow Weapon System and provides several interceptor components, including the avionics and guidance system as well as the canister assembly that houses the kinetic energy interceptor.

Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, confirmed during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington on May 21 that Arrow-3 development was under way.

He said that "to mitigate the Arrow-3 development schedule risk, we are ensuring that the development of a land-based variant of the proven Aegis SM-3 missile is available to meet Israel's upper-tier requirements."

In Paris, IAI also displayed full-scale models of the Barak 8 surface-to-air missile being developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Few technical details of the weapon have been disclosed, but it is designed for multiple and simultaneous engagements in what IAI described as "severe saturation scenarios."

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