With divert motor capability, its kill vehicle can switch directions dramatically, allowing it to pivot to see approaching satellites.

[5] According to the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency, Arrow 3 may serve as an anti-satellite weapon, which would make Israel one of the world's few countries capable of destroying orbiting satellites.

[6] The development is based on an architecture definition study conducted in 2006–2007, determining the need for the upper-tier component to be integrated into Israel's ballistic missile defense system.

According to Arieh Herzog, then Director of Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO), the main element of this upper tier will be an exoatmospheric interceptor, to be jointly developed by IAI and Boeing.

[11] On 23 January 2012, the Israeli Ministry of Defense released photographs and video of the recent successfully fly-out tests from Palmachim Airbase.

According to a senior defense source, the missile obtained hypersonic speed, and reached an altitude of 100 km (62 mi), entering space.

[20] In a series of tests in July 2019 at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, the Arrow 3 system successfully intercepted 3 "enemy" rockets, one of them outside the atmosphere.

[8] Joseph Hasson, chief missile designer at IAI, who patented the new kill vehicle with his colleague Galya Goldner, says that the concept is relatively simple, reliable and inexpensive, and is based on mature technologies.

[8] IAI displayed a full-sized model of the Arrow 3 missile and its kill vehicle at the June 2009 Paris Air Show.

[25] Arrow 3 should be able to intercept ballistic missiles, especially those carrying weapons of mass destruction,[26] at altitudes of over 100 km (62 mi),[27] and in greater ranges.

[4] Stark, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, was chosen to manufacture canisters for the Arrow 3, and made the first delivery in September 2018.

[33] According to Jane's Defence Weekly in 2013, a solicitation that outlines the expansion of an Israeli Air Force facility at Tal Shahar, roughly halfway between Jerusalem and Ashdod, near Beit Shemesh, indicates that almost certainly it will be used for four Arrow 3 launchers on sites cut into the surrounding hills.

[39][40][41] On 9 November 2023, for the first time, the Arrow 3 successfully intercepted a Houthi missile heading from Yemen to the country's southernmost city of Eilat.