What's THAAD and Why Might Israel Want Them?

The United States is reportedly looking at deploying a THAAD missile defense system, along with the troops to operate it, on Israeli soil. A US defense official has told Sputnik that no final decision has been made on the matter.

Here's what to know about the sophisticated US weapons system:

Promotional materials boast the THAAD’s superior lethality and hit-to-kill ratios, high firepower for sustained defense, and powerful radar. The system has proved successful in testing against 60s’ vintage SCUD-type missiles and US-made targeting test IRBMs.

But the THAAD’s combat use has proven a mixed bag, with the system reporting its first combat kill in January 2022 against a Houthi ballistic and cruise missile and drone barrage, but failing to intercept all enemy projectiles, which set infrastructure at Abu Dhabi’s airport on fire and destroyed three oil tankers near a military base hosting US, French and Emirati troops. Abu Dhabi’s possible dissatisfaction with the THAAD’s performance may have prompted it to purchase an undisclosed number of Rafael/Israel Aerospace Industries-made 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 of this year, when multiple missiles penetrated defenses and reached their targets. The US has also deployed THAADs to South Korea and Romania amid tensions with Pyongyang and Moscow. The US military is known to operate 7-8 THAAD batteries, and along with the UAE, the system has also been purchased by Saudi Arabia.

At first glance, reports of US plans to deploy the THAAD in Israel seem to 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 US THAAD deployment would therefore 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 – i.e. about the total land area of the state of New Jersey.