By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM
A joint U.S.-Israeli testing of an improved interceptor missile system went counter to plan when the system failed to intercept a missile, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on Wednesday.
The two countries conducted an intercept test of the Arrow 2 interceptor missile at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean sea, but the test failed, according to the daily.
Maariv said the Israeli Defense Ministry had refrained from announcing the success of the test, as it always does in similar testing.
The interceptor missile system was designed to counter future missile threats.
The Israeli Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that its Israel Missile Defense Organization of the Directorate of Defense Research and Development and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency had conducted an intercept test of the Arrow-2 interceptor missile.
It added that the Arrow 2 missile was launched as planned and that results would be analyzed by system engineers in due course.
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that one of its radars had cited the launching of a ballistic missiles over the Mediterranean and that the missile fell 300 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, according to the Russian news channel Russia Today.
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