As part of the current memorandum of understanding, the United States invests $ 3.3 billion annually in military aid to Israel, but in the operation against Iran, US assistance reached a especially high amount. According to the “Bulgarian military” website, the duration of the 12 days of struggle between Israel and Iran, the United States has launched about 15% -20% of all the interceptors of the Thaad system in the world against Iranian ballistic missiles, which cost more than.
Thaad was developed by Lockheed Martin. The system is designed to intercept ballistic missiles, and direct blows are threats to intercept them (blow to kill). Thaad is unique in its design to intercept missiles in the terminal phase, usually at 40-150 km altitudes, using an advanced Raytheon radar. Each Thaad battery has 6-8 pitchers, with eight interceptors in each.
The American system has maneuvering capabilities, similar to David’s Sling de Israel, which is designed for average range threats, with Thaad capable of tracking up to seven goals at the same time. In Israel, Thaad is designed to provide protection against the extensive bombs released by the Iranians. When I identify threats with radar, the Israeli air defense system examines its type, speed and height, and according to all these, one of the systems is activated.
The main disadvantage of the Thaad system
The United States has deployed two Thaad batteries in Israel. The first battery arrived in October 2024 and the second in April 2025, and its operation, including cost, is the responsibility of the United States. The Americans arrived in Israel with a system that has already been demonstrated at the operational level, with the first interception on January 17, 2022 of a ballistic missile launched by the hutis rebels in Yemen against the EAU, but the scale of the interceptions in the operation of Israel against Iran does not approach what Thaaad had previously handled.
Thaad’s main disadvantage, similar to other US systems, are extremely high weapons costs. Each of the US interceptor missiles. UU. It costs around $ 12.7 million, according to the Budget of the United States missile defense agency (MDA), much more Glass Arrow 3 (around $ 2 million) or Arrow 2 (approximately $ 1.5 million). A comparison among other Israeli and American systems demonstrates similar results. While an interceptor Missile by David Sling costs approximately $ 700,000, the cost of intercepting a patriot pac-3 system is approximately $ 6 million. This system was the basis of the American defense at the base of Al-Laeid in Qatar last week, where, rather to the “defense news”, two patriotic batteries with approximately 44 soldiers, the elderly of which he is a 28-year-old captain, operated by the captain, the mission to intercept for the archives.
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85% -90% interception rate
The data of the National Security Studies Institute show that Iran launched around 591 ballistic missiles in Israel for 12 days, with Israeli and US defense systems. UU. Intercepting around 85% -90%, a higher rate than war. Of these, Thaad made around 60-80 interceptions, according to the “Bulgarian Army.” In general, asymmetric investment between attack costs and interception costs refers to drones. However, this problem is also reflected in the field of ballistic missiles, as in the case of American systems. Thaad, with a price of approximately $ 12-15 million per interceptor, has faced ballistic missiles whose prices vary from approximately $ 100,000 for relatively old models such as Fateh-11 to approximately $ 1 million for advanced models such as Khorramh.
In summary, Thaad deployment in Israel can provide a challenge to the Trump administration for two reasons: economic and operational. In the economic sphere, the Department of Defense last week submitted its budget application for fiscal year 2026, which is around $ 961.6 billion. This amount includes, among other things, $ 205 billion for acquisitions, $ 107 billion for operation and maintenance, and $ 1.2 billion for R&D D. In the long term, the Pentagon budget is expected to cross the brand of billion dollars by 2027. As required that the United States invest more in the operational use of its interceptors, which are almost expensive, the investment will increase.
At the same time, the United States unfolds worldwide. When the Thaad system was developed in the 1990s, it was aimed at the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, but also that of North Korea. Today, the Chinese DF-21D and DF-26 missiles are also on the agenda, already measure that Beijing’s threat to Taiwan and the tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul increase, it is possible that the brass or the pentagon will be an amaze there back there.
Posted by Globes, Israel Business News – Y.globes.co.Il – on June 30, 2025.
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