Israel is preparing for the first partial deployment of the Arrow-2 anti-missile system, which should be able to intercept Scud-B missiles fired from Syria or Iraq. Israel now wants the US to provide money to improve Arrow so that it can deal with the Iranian Shehab-3 and Shehab-4 missiles expected to enter service in a couple of years. Longer-range missiles travel faster and are harder to intercept, and the Shehab series are so fast that they would reach their targets before Arrow could detect, track, and intercept them.--Stephen V Cole