Israel Aircraft Industries? Arrow Anti-Ballistic Missile System Won the Flight Award 2001

Arrow was an ?Outstanding and impressive achievement? of a complete weapon system of ?major importance, contributing to the security of population threatened by adverse ballistic missile systems?. The judges felt that Arrow was a ?worthy winner?, having sealed a gap in Israeli defenses, adding that a number of other countries threatened by ballistic missile threats are eyeing Arrow.

Last September Arrow performed its first operational test, destroying an air-launched Black Sparrow missile, which was mimicking the flight profile of an incoming ballistic weapon. The system was declared fully operational in October 2000, and in March this year the Israeli Air Force formally accepted Arrow into service.

Finalists in this category were Northrop Grumman, with its development of the BAT munition, and the Surrey Space Center (SSC) and commercial arm Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) for the design, manufacture and orbiting of the SNAP-1 nanosatellite.