The United States will provide Israel with Iron Dome units to strengthen the country’s air defense amid constant rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
Bloomberg reported on this with reference to its own sources in the Pentagon.
“The United States will provide Israel with additional support with Iron Dome systems. The Ministry of Defense is currently planning the delivery of US Army’s batteries of Iron Dome to Israel,” a source in the Defense Ministry shared.
The source spoke about two batteries of the Iron Dome system, which are being prepared for delivery to Israel. In addition, 300 Tamir interceptor missiles for this air defense system will be sent.
The source did not disclose how the air defense systems will be transported or how soon they will arrive.
The Israeli company RAFAEL delivered the first ordered Iron Dome battery to the United States on October 1, 2020.
The transferred systems are intended to strengthen Israel’s air defense after Hamas launched large-scale coordinated missile and drone attacks on the country on October 7.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas has fired over 7,000 missiles toward Israel over the past two weeks, with more than 2,000 missiles fired on October 7 alone. While most of them were shot down, some managed to penetrate air defenses and hit residential areas, including Tel Aviv.
Iron Dome
The Iron Dome is an air defense system developed by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in cooperation with the American company RTX (formerly Raytheon). It is designed to intercept and destroy short-range missiles, as well as cruise missiles and aircraft.
The system consists of a radar, which detects and fixes air targets (missiles or aircraft), a fire control center, and several launchers with interceptor missiles. One battery usually includes three launchers with 20 missiles each.
The system was designed to protect Israeli civilians from missiles and mortars fired by militant groups in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It made its debut in April 2011 by intercepting a Grad rocket headed toward Ashkelon and fired from Gaza.
The US Army purchased two batteries of Iron Dome air defense systems several years ago. The systems were supposed to fill a gap in the defense against cruise missiles while the military was developing its own system to counter various air and missile threats.
It is reported that the United States no longer plans to purchase Iron Dome or integrate the system into its air defense.