Israel and the United States staged on Monday the first test flight of their upgraded Arrow missile defense system, the Israeli Defense ministry stated.

The Zionist entity and the United States staged on Monday the first test flight of their upgraded Arrow missile defense system, the Israeli Defense ministry stated.

"This is the first flight test of the Arrow 3 interceptor and was conducted at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea," it added, indicating that “Israel's Missile Defense Organization and US Missile Defense Agency officials conducted the flight test."

The Arrow is a jointly-produced, cutting-edge system designed to counter long-range missile attacks, mainly from Israel's arch-foe Iran.

A senior Israeli defense ministry official, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, was quoted by AFP as saying that “unlike previous versions, the mark 3 Arrow was designed to intercept targets above the earth's atmosphere.”

“The Arrow 3 is the upper tier for exo-atmospheric interceptions to provide the state of Israel additional opportunities for interception of incoming missiles from Iran or elsewhere,” the Zionist official said. However he pointed out that “the test has nothing to do with the current political environment between Israel and elsewhere.”