US has deployed THAAD anti-missile defense system and troops in Isreal
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| A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor being fired during an exercise in 2013. |
The US may be planning to deploy a THAAD missile defense system, along with the troops to operate it, on Israeli soil. A US defense official has told Sputnik no final decision has been made. Is the THAAD the missile defense holy grail Israel is looking for to guard against further Iranian missile attacks? And what about Tel Aviv’s own much-vaunted defenses?
Introduced into service with the US Army in 2008, the THAAD (‘Terminal High Altitude Area Defense’) is an anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the reentry phase.
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| via Lockheed Martin |
Developed by Lockheed, THAAD destroys projectiles using kinetic force alone, with its $12 mln apiece 900 kg, 6.17 m-long interceptors powered by a solid-fuel Pratt & Whitney motor with thrust vectoring and the ability to accelerate to speeds up to Mach 8.2. The THAAD has a 150-200 km range (including up to 150 km from the ground).
Each THAAD HEMTT-LHS launch vehicle carries eight interceptors, and along with launchers and a C&C vehicle, batteries feature a Raytheon AN/TPY-2 X-band search & track radar with a 1,000 km detection range. A THAAD battery costs $800 mln, although the price for foreign clients has been known to top $1 bln.
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| A United States soldier looks inside his tool bag during a routine maintenance inspection of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system at Andersen Air Force Base, in Guam, October 26, 2017 [File: US Army/Capt Adan Cazarez/Handout via Reuters] |
Promotional materials boast the THAAD’s superior lethality and hit-to-kill ratios in testing, high firepower for sustained defense, and powerful radar.
But combat use has proven a mixed bag, with the system reporting its first combat kill in January 2022 during a Houthi missile barrage, but failing to intercept all enemy projectiles, which set infrastructure at Abu Dhabi’s airport on fire and destroyed oil tankers near a military base hosting US, French and Emirati troops. Abu Dhabi’s possible dissatisfaction with THAAD’s performance may have led it to buy Rafael SPYDER short-to-medium range air defense systems from Israel.
THAADs are known to have been occasionally deployed in Israel by the US, but it’s not clear where the system was during Iran’s drone and missile attacks in April and October, when multiple missiles penetrated defenses and reached their targets. The US has also deployed THAADs to South Korea and Romania. The US operates 7-8 THAAD batteries. Other operators include the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Where are Israel’s own defenses?
At first glance, reports of US plans to deploy the THAAD in Israel fly in the face of years of publicity about the capabilities of Israel’s own multilayered air and missile defense technology.
The newish Rafael/Raytheon David’s Sling, for example, features a similar terminal kinetic interceptor concept, a 250-300 km firing range, but only a 15 km max altitude. Its supermaneuverable kill vehicles accelerate to speeds up to Mach 7.5, and have a reported price of $1 mln apiece.
The Arrow family of ABMs includes the Arrow 2 and 3 interceptors, designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate-range missiles, and featuring either kill vehicle or blast warhead, a 90-150 km (Arrow 2) to 2,400 km (Arrow 3) range, an exo-atmospheric flight ceiling, a Mach 9+ flight speed, and a price of $3.5 mln (Arrow 2) or $62 mln (Arrow 3).
Arrows were reportedly deployed during the April and October Iranian strikes on Israel, with the David’s Sling reportedly used during the latter attack, with all three systems proving insufficient to stop Iranian missiles from getting through.
If anything, the potential US THAAD deployment could be a symbolic display of continued American support for Israel – whose missile defenses proved overwhelmed by 200 Iranian ballistic missiles (out of an arsenal of thousands), despite the need to defend less than 22,000 sq. km of land area (i.e. an area about the size of New Jersey).
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| A battery of the US THAAD missile defense system has been spotted in the Negev Desert. Reports in X platform ( @OsintExperts) |
A battery of the US THAAD missile defense system has been spotted in the Negev Desert. The Pentagon is deploying a high-altitude target interception system in Israel in anticipation of an Iranian strike.