The U.S. is sending an advanced anti-ballistic missile air defense system to Israel to shield against further Iranian aerial attacks as the possibility of strikes between the Israelis and Iran looms large over the war-torn region.
The Pentagon said on Sunday it was deploying a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery to Israel, along with a select number of personnel, to defend against Iran after Tehran launched two aerial attacks on Israel this year. Around 100 U.S. troops will reportedly travel to the Middle East with the advanced air defense system.
Iran launched close to 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel at the start of the month. The Israeli Defense Forces said most were intercepted, although some landed on Israeli territory, including air bases. There was no major damage, the IDF said.
Israel is thought to be weighing up its response to Iran’s barrage. U.S. officials think Tel Aviv has whittled down which Iranian sites it could target, NBC News reported on Saturday; this would likely be Tehran’s military and energy infrastructure, but not nuclear facilities. A final decision has not been made, according to the report. The Israeli Defense Ministry declined to comment on Sunday.
Israel had been consistently targeting high-ranking leaders allied with Tehran, including killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the suburbs of Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Tehran had launched a combination of missile and drone attacks on Israel in mid-April, marking the first time Iran had directly attacked the Israelis from Iranian soil. More than 300 drones and missiles were used after Tehran said it would retaliate for a strike on its consulate in Syria two weeks earlier, which it blamed on Tel Aviv.
Staff Sgt. Cory D. Payne/U.S. Air Force via AP
Seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in Damascus, the capital and largest city of Syria. Israel has not commented on the strike.
The U.S. was involved in intercepting both Iranian attacks on Israel, and the Pentagon described Iran’s October barrage as “nearly twice the scope” of the April aerial assault.
Two U.S. destroyers “fired a dozen interceptors” at the Iranian ballistic missiles this month, according to Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary.
The U.S.’s support for Israel over the past year has been substantial, repeatedly described by Washington as “ironclad.” Israel’s Defense Ministry said in late August that the U.S. had delivered more than 50,000 tons of military supplies to Israel, with the likes of armored vehicles, ammunition and medical equipment arriving in more than 100 ships and 500 aircraft.
“The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system,” Ryder said on Sunday. “This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”
The THAAD is an advanced system designed to fend off short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats. It can intercept missiles both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere during what is known as the terminal phase of flight, or the last stage before a warhead strikes a target or detonates.
It can cover a larger area than the U.S.-made Patriots, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It is made up of four main parts, the CSIS think tank said: a launch vehicle, an interceptor, a radar, and a fire control system.
The U.S. military has seven THAAD batteries, with an eighth expected to arrive in the hands of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency in 2025. The first THAAD battery has been operational since 2008, and the seventh has been in service since late 2016, according to defense giant Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the THAAD systems.
The U.S. previously deployed a THAAD battery to the Middle East after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its October 7 attacks a year ago, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage in Gaza, which borders southern Israel.
Israel then declared war on Hamas in the strip, launching intensive aerial bombing campaigns and ground operations that have devastated the territory. More than 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israeli operations, according to Hamas-run health authorities.
War has also broken out in southern Lebanon between Israel and Lebanese-based Hezbollah, a large militant force and influential political party backed by Tehran that has been exchanging fire with Israel for a year, in what it described as solidarity with Hamas.
Israel is around two weeks into ground operations over its northern border and has intensified aerial strikes across Lebanon, including in and around Beirut.
Washington also deployed a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 during a training exercise.
