FOCUS – The Pentagon has announced the sending of an anti-aircraft battery to Israel to combat the Iranian ballistic threat. It complements the Hebrew Iron Dome.
The United States to the rescue of its closest ally. On Sunday, October 13, the Pentagon announced the deployment of a high altitude air defense battery (THAAD, for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) in Israel, to help the Jewish state fight against the Iranian ballistic threat “after the unprecedented attacks by Iran”. “This action underscores the United States’ unwavering commitment to defending Israel and defending Americans in Israel against any further ballistic missile attacks from Iran.”justified the Department of Defense in a press release.
On April 13, then on October 1, the Islamic Republic launched two massive attacks against Israel. If the first was intercepted 90% by the Hebrew Iron Dome, the second was more effective, with only 79% of missiles destroyed, according to a study by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), relayed by The Great Continent . The American THAAD anti-missile shield could help plug the gaps in the event of a new Iranian attack. It will take at least a week to be delivered, a senior US military official told Reuters. New York Times .
«Hit-to-kill»
Designed by the American company Lockheed Martin and in service in the United States since 2008, the THAAD acts as a shield against short (less than 1000 km) and medium (between 1000 and 3000 km) range ballistic missiles, as well as certain intermediate range projectiles (3000 to 5000 km). It is therefore perfectly suited to the Iranian threat. The Israeli multilayer system essentially protects low-altitude missiles, the most used by Hamas and Hezbollah, and rockets or cruise missiles with a range of between 40 and 3,000 km. The Arrow II and Arrow III systems also allow the interception of ballistic missiles, at 500 km for the first, and at 2400 km for the second.
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The American battery works on the model of hit-to-kill : its missiles do not carry any warhead and only destroy their target thanks to their kinetic energy. The effectiveness of the missiles is announced within a radius of 200 km around the launchers and up to 150 km altitude. They can therefore destroy the threat during its flight phase outside the atmosphere as well as during its descent into the atmosphere.
Each of the systems is made up of six truck-mounted launchers, consisting of eight interceptors. Currently, the United States is equipped with seven such batteries. They must be operated by 95 soldiers, according to a recent document from the American Congress. The Pentagon also announced that the battery sent to Israel would be accompanied by a crew of American soldiers.
A system deployed in 2023
This is the first time that American troops will be deployed in Israel since October 7. A THAAD battery had already been deployed to the Middle East after the October 7 attack, but its location remained secret. In 2019, another system was sent, this time to the Jewish state, for an air defense exercise. By October 2023, the United States had also deployed a THAAD to protect its two carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean Sea. Washington announced that it feared at the time that “Iranian proxies intensify attacks against (its) own (military) personnel and (its) nationals”.
The deployment of THAAD in Israel aims to anticipate a new Iranian attack. The Jewish state has not yet responded to that of October 1, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated that the response would be “deadly, precise and above all surprising”. Iran promised in return that it would not let any Israeli attack go unanswered.
