US sends Thaad anti-missile system to Israel after Iran attack

The US says it will send an advanced anti-missile system and a military contingent to Israel to help bolster the country’s air defenses after a missile attack from Iran earlier this month.

A Pentagon statement said President Joe Biden ordered the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery and its personnel to be deployed “to protect Israel”.

Iran launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on October 1. The Israeli military said most of them had been captured, but a number attacked in central and southern Israel.

Israel has not said how it will respond to the attack, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said it would be “lethal, precise and above all surprising”.

Iran has also said it will not allow any Israeli attack to go unanswered.

The Pentagon said the deployment of Thaad “underlines the ironclad commitment of the United States to defend Israel, and to protect the American people in Israel, from any Iranian missile attack”.

The US sent a Thaad battery to the Middle East after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year. It previously sent a Thaad battery to Israel in 2019 for training and aerial exercises.

But US sending workers to Israel is very rare.

Iran said its October 1 missile attack was in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the top Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander in Beirut, as well as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. in Tehran.

Israel has greatly increased its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in recent weeks, carrying out deadly airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon and parts of Beirut.

Before that, Israel and Hezbollah had been trading cross-border gunfire almost daily since last October, when Hezbollah began firing at Israel over what it said was a show of support for the Palestinians in Gaza. It has said it will stop firing if there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, international efforts to get Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire in Gaza have so far failed.

The US announcement underscores its growing concern about ballistic missiles targeting Israel.

Thaad provides yet another layer of defense against so-called endo and exo (inside and outside) space threats. It costs about a billion dollars for a battery.

Manufacturer Lockheed Martin describes the system as highly effective against short-, medium- and long-range targets.

Thaad missiles, with a reported range of up to 200km (124 miles), are of the “hit to kill” type, instead of using accretive detonation to take down the target.

Israel’s missile defenses include Iron Dome for short-range rockets, David’s Sling for long-range missiles and ballistic missiles, and Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 against ballistic missiles launched from more than 1,000km (621 miles ) away.

Countering ballistic missile threats is particularly difficult due to the high speed of those missiles and the rapid rate of change of position in flight – especially during their final phase.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hezbollah in Lebanon has about 150,000 rockets – mostly supplied by Iran – at its disposal.