Humanity crossed a threshold in the skies above the Red Sea last month when a Houthi missile heading towards Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city, was shot down outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
The inaugural use of Israel’s Arrow 3 air defence system to destroy a ballistic missile fired from Yemen was the first time the world had ever seen a battle fought in space.
While the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) faced criticism for its failure to capture Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the Hamas ringleaders responsible for the October 7 attacks, the scientific breakthrough is arguably more militarily significant. It proves that Israel can swat away a barrage of intercontinental ballistic missiles with as much ease as its Iron Dome short-range air defence system can destroy Hamas rockets.
But for the Israeli scientist who has spent his career studying the physics of cosmic warfare, it was hardly a moment to celebrate. “When you succeed in intercepting a threat, you may feel some pride,” said Professor Isaac Ben-Israel, 74, the chairman of Israel’s space agency. He added: “But excessive pride is risky. You can become too proud and then you become complacent about the next generation of threats.”
Amid escalating tensions with the Iranian-backed Houthis, Israel’s Arrow 3 air defence system has demonstrated its capability by intercepting Houthi missiles, showcasing its effectiveness in countering threats originating from Yemen.
Houthi attacks
The Iranian-backed Houthis have emerged as one of Israel’s most determined and well-armed adversaries.
Last month Houthi commandos wearing balaclavas landed a helicopter on a container ship — just one in a series of hijackings targeting Israeli-linked vessels — and brazenly published footage online.
Then on Sunday, the militia targeted three Israeli-linked commercial vessels navigating the Bab al-Mandab strait, a bottleneck between Yemen and Djibouti in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. A US destroyer, USS Carney, deployed to the Red Sea to shoot down Houthi missiles aimed at Israel, was forced to intervene, taking out at least three drones.
The Houthis have vowed to impose a naval blockade on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea until the bombardment of Gaza ends. But they also say they intend to keep attacking Israel itself from the opposite end of the Arabian peninsula, a distance of over 1,000 miles.
Air raids in Eilat
Famous for its scuba diving and tax-free shopping, Eilat was initially considered so safe by the Israeli government that the survivors of October 7 were evacuated to its beachside resorts from the kibbutzim bordering Gaza.
Now the children are forced to relive the trauma of the attacks whenever air-raid sirens warn them of incoming Houthi missiles.
“Every time there’s a siren, they think the terrorists are coming,” said Tuval Deby, 39, about her two sons Alon, 9, and Yotam, 12. “They close the blinds and windows and they try to hide.” The two brothers spent 15 hours locked in the family’s safe room at Nir Yitzhak kibbutz, vomiting with fear as they heard the crack of Hamas gunfire outside on October 7.
“There’s a lot of regression when they have to go into the shelters. We often see children finding it difficult to leave their parents. If they’ve gone two steps forward, they might end up two steps back,” said Debra Kalmanowitz, 58, an art therapist with IsraAid, a charity helping survivors.
Eilat’s population more than doubled when it began hosting 60,000 survivors of the Hamas massacres in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. The hotels, usually full this time of year with Israelis chasing winter sun, have erected tent classrooms and bouncy castles in their courtyards. Elderly survivors idle away the hours playing board games in the hotel lobbies. Day and night, the rumble of Israeli fighter jets heading for Gaza fills the desert valley with sounds of thunderous revenge. Those caring for the distressed children say the sight of Israeli soldiers carrying assault rifles around the hotels is reassuring — unlike the promise of Houthi attacks.
“The first time the siren sounded, it was terrible because we’re in Eilat so the survivors were not prepared for it,” said Orit Rubin, 49, another IsraAid therapist. “They had allowed their guards down. When you’re not expecting something, it triggers trauma much more. Eilat is also close to Sinai so the survivors thought people were infiltrating the border again. Whenever they hear alarms, they think people are going to enter.”
Arrow 3
The Houthis have amassed an array of Iranian-designed weapons during a nine-year civil war in Yemen fought against the Saudi-backed government, a conflict that has killed over 150,000 people.
On October 31, Israel’s Arrow 2 long-range air defences shot down a Houthi surface-to-surface ballistic missile for the first time. During the same attack, an F-35I fighter jet intercepted a cruise missile that left pieces of shrapnel littered across the Jordanian desert.
Then on November 10, the IDF announced that Arrow 3, the most advanced system in the world, had taken out another Houthi missile, thought to be an Iranian Ghadr-110, an interception that took place outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Footage subsequently released by the IDF shows an Arrow 3 battery located somewhere in the Negev desert illuminating the night sky.
• How does Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system work?
The Arrow missile defence system, developed after 42 Iraqi Scud missiles were fired at Tel Aviv and Haifa in 1991, is designed to shoot down missiles in space before they enter the atmosphere. The interceptions, which cost $3 million per shot, are supposed to take place as far away from Israeli borders as possible.
“We thought one day those missiles could carry nuclear warheads, and therefore we needed to respond as high as possible and as far away from the borders of Israel,” said Ben-Israel, who was head of research and development at the IDF during the early years of Arrow 3’s development.
It is not known where in Yemen the ballistic missiles have been fired from, but the distance from Sanaa, the main Houthi stronghold, to Eilat, is about 1,800km. Ben-Israel said a typical ballistic missile fired 2000km would reach an altitude of 500km — higher than the orbit of the International Space Station — and take roughly ten minutes to reach its target, allowing Israel’s network of satellites and radar stations scanning the Middle East to identify the missile before alerting a 24/7 IDF air defence team whose permission would be sought to intercept it.
“There are human beings in the loop who accept it or reject it. If it’s short-range and Iron Dome, it means you don’t spend too much time on human intervention. It’s more automatic. For longer range you have time,” he said.
Outer space begins at the Kármán line, an altitude of 100km above the Earth’s surface. The Arrow 3 hypersonic missile is designed without fins because there is no air to navigate with beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, the missile has a rotating thrust nozzle at its bottom, allowing the missile to change direction. A gimballed seeker stabilises the computerised system trying to calculate the precise location of impact.
‘Quantity is always an issue’
The Arrow 3 system was jointly developed by Israel and the US. European countries, who neglected their air defences for a long period of time in the aftermath of the Cold War, have taken notice since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Germany signed a €4 billion deal to buy Arrow 3 in September.
Israel’s air defences — the short-range Iron Dome, the medium-range David’s Sling, and the long-range Arrow 3 —have proven so far that they can deal with the range of threats. But a nightmare scenario would be the simultaneous launch of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, rockets and kamikaze drones fired from across the Middle East at Tel Aviv — an attack that might involve Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and perhaps others besides, including Iran. Such an attack could challenge Israel’s formidable air defences, Ben-Israel admits. “It’s a question of quantity,” he said. “Quantity is always an issue.”
Additional reporting by Gabrielle Weiniger
