Israel and U.S. Conduct Missile Test in Mediterranean

Israel’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the first test of the latest version of the so-called Sparrow target missile had been successful, with the missile following its planned trajectory toward the Israeli coast and the Arrow radar system detecting and tracking its path. Myriam Nahon, a spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry, declined to answer questions about whether the test had been connected in any way to the situation in Syria, saying only that such tests are “conducted periodically,” and “it happens whenever it has to happen.”

In Washington, the Pentagon said in a statement that it had provided technical assistance and support to the Israelis for the Sparrow test launch. The statement said the test had nothing to do with American preparations for possible military action against Syria.

“The test was long planned to help the Arrow Ballistic Missile Defense system’s ability to detect, track and communicate information about a simulated threat to Israel,” the statement said.

Arieh Herzog, the former head of Israel’s missile-defense program, said the test was “a routine part of what is done in the development of the defense systems.”

“In regular days the Russians would not see it,” Mr. Herzog said. “But right now they have probably many sensors looking at the region, so each and every movement or flying object in the region is something that they look at and try to understand what happens. They may be thinking that it may be something that is connected to the Syrian situation, but it is not.”

On its Facebook page, the Defense Ministry posted a 33-second video of a jet releasing the missile and said in its statement that “all the elements of the system performed according to their operational configuration.”

Commenting on the missile test, Moshe Yaalon, the defense minister of Israel, said on Army Radio that the preparedness by the Israel Defense Forces over the past week was “founded on many technological capabilities, which need to be tested by the defense establishment and the army, and indeed a successful test was held.” He also said: “Our systems need to be examined and we will continue to develop, share and provide the IDF with the best systems in the world.”

Mr. Yaalon added that Israel had not been involved in the American policy process regarding Syria and noted that given the postponement of any possible military strike, the army had released some of the reservists called up last week.

Syrian state media said there had been no missile detected by Syrian forces. Syrian supporters of the uprising briefly shared a flurry of excited messages on Twitter, viewing it as a sign of preparations for an attack and mocking the Syrian government, noting that its military had famously not mentioned detecting Israeli missiles and warplanes in various incidents over the years — from the bombing of Syrian arms stores during the civil war to the attack on a suspected nuclear site several years ago.

In Russia, the missile launch was first reported by the RIA Novosti state news agency, which announced early Tuesday afternoon that Russian radar had detected the launch of what it called two ballistic missiles in the Mediterranean Sea, giving no further clarification.

The announcement set off breathless conjecture on Russian news sites and social media networks of an American strike against Syria. Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, was reported to have briefed President Vladimir V. Putin about the missile launch, even as the lack of details in state media reports raised the question of whether Russian officials knew precisely what had occurred.

The reports from the Russian Ministry of Defense said rockets had been launched more than two hours before the news broke and yet the missiles had not seemed to hit any target in the region. When the missiles were reported to have crashed in the Mediterranean Sea, the Interfax news service cited a source in the Russian Navy suggesting that the launch may have been a meteorological experiment.