Two previous papers, arXiv:1803.00284 and arXiv:1803.00281, introduced and studied strong subgraph $k$-connectivity of digraphs obtaining characterizations, lower and upper bounds and computational complexity results for the new digraph parameter. The parameter is an analog of well-studied generalized $k$-connectivity of undirected graphs. In this paper, we introduce the concept of strong subgraph $k$-arc-connectivity of digraphs, which is an analog of generalized $k$-edge-connectivity of undirected graphs. We also obtain characterizations, lower and upper bounds and computational complexity results for this digraph parameter. Several of our results differ from those obtained for strong subgraph $k$-connectivity.