Why Would The US Spy on Experiments When It Is A Part...

Why Would The US Spy on Experiments When It Is A Part Of Them?

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

Security services in Israel have voiced their surprise at reports claiming that the US has allegedly spying on experiments of the Arrow anti-ballistic missile missile.

According to the reports at Intercept, the US has been following Rafael’s Black Sparrow target missile, which simulates a ballistic missile during experiments with the Arrow missile developed by IAI.

This strange discovery also appears in the papers Edward Snowden has revealed.

Black Sparrow is a target missile launched from F-15s, and in its most common version simulates a launch and navigates the flight of a ballistic missile. Black Sparrow is manufactured by Rafael in cooperation with the American Raytheon.

Rafael has developed several models of the target missile – there is also the Silver Sparrow used for other types of experiments.

As stated, security services officials have voiced their surprise at the reports: “The Americans are partners in the Arrow project and they know these target missiles through and through. Someone here is either imagining or has gone crazy,” a defense source said.

The source added that he thinks someone in the US intelligence system failed to coordinate with the Pentagon and has spied on Israeli system to which Americans had and has full access.

American representatives are present in every experiment of the Arrow anti-missile missile in Israel.

On the subject of spying on Israeli UAVs, also revealed by Snowden, the source said the Americans know full well what Israel has and that they were spying on the drones at a time when communications between the aerial vehicles and the ground stations was not encrypted. “Today it would be much harder for any intelligence service to spy on the Israel UAVs broadcasts.”

In recent years the UAVs were equipped with spy-proof communications channels.