LONDON — About 100 US troops will soon be on duty Israel To help defend the country against the powerful missile threat from Iran and its regional allies, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon.
They will be deployed with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery; $1 billion in weapons to South Korea, Guam and the United Arab Emirates, among others, to nullify the ballistic missile threat posed by America’s adversaries.
The THAAD deployment is a political and military signal ahead of Israel’s expected retaliatory strike against Iran in response to the latter’s October 1 ballistic missile attack.
“I think we should see this deployment of THAAD for what it is, which is another clear statement of our commitment to the security of Israel as it counters everything that comes from Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” said Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. this week
This file photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows a U.S. Army High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) at Fort Bliss, Texas on February 23, 2019.
Staff Sgt. Cory D. Payne/AP
But committing American troops on the ground and scarce hardware to a possible open war in the Middle East also carries risks. Wormuth acknowledged that the Navy’s air defense forces are the most “stressed” of the service’s other forces due to high demand for their systems.
“Missile defense buys you time, missile defense buys you flexibility with other means of ending the threat,” said Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. .
“But you have to take advantage of the time and flexibility it buys you,” he added. “You can’t sit back and play catch.”
“If we’re going to do things like this, we have to make sure it’s used properly and let the Iranians know they have to stop this nonsense,” Karako said.
“The Iranian threat has to end, and sometimes escalation is good if it means ending something, as opposed to having a long-term attrition conflict,” he added.
“It’s a bet.”
Israel’s anti-missile network
Lockheed Martin’s THAAD is designed to intercept short-, medium-, and medium-range ballistic missiles whose munitions are capable of hitting targets between 93 and 124 miles and at altitudes of up to 93 miles.
Interceptors aim to hit missiles both outside and inside the Earth’s atmosphere during the final phase of flight.
THAAD’s capabilities are roughly equivalent to Israel’s Arrow 2 system. Israel also uses the long-range Arrow 3, along with the medium- and long-range David Sling system and celebrities Iron Dome system for shorter range threats.
Because of this, THAAD does not necessarily represent a significant capability upgrade, Sidharth Kaushal of the UK’s Royal United Services Institute told ABC News. Rather, “ability is the most significant contributor,” he said.
As Israel faces the reality of massive drone, rocket and ballistic missile attacks, “any radar that helps light up the skies and put energy on incoming threats will be helpful,” Karako said.
An Israeli soldier inspects a house damaged by a missile fired by Hezbollah during a media tour on October 15, 2024 in Metula, Israel.
Amir Levy/Getty Images
But THAAD is limited in how long it can “catch”. Each battery typically equips 48 interceptor missiles, according to a 2024 Congressional Research Service report. The system has an advanced radar that tracks incoming missiles and guides interceptors up to 20 feet long. The truck-mounted launcher consists of eight tubes.
The first THAAD system was deployed in the US in 2012, according to CSIS’s Missile Defense Project. Lockheed Martin said in December that it had delivered a total of 800 interceptors to the Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency. There are only seven THAAD systems, and an eighth will be delivered in 2025.
Hezbollah’s and Iran’s missile-based strategies have strained Israeli-American defenses. During the Oct. 1 attack on Tehran, US warships launched a dozen Standard Missile 3 interceptors and other weapons in the Mediterranean Sea to defeat the attack, the Navy said.
“When the US spends a dozen SM-3s a day, or an hour, like we did a week or so ago, that’s a year’s worth of production,” Karako said.
“These are very scarce resources and should not be thought of as being wasted. When our inventory is depleted, it is used for the United States all over the world.”
It’s a concern – we don’t produce THAAD rounds in large numbers,” he added. “It’s a risk.”
The drone threat
Surviving Hezbollah leaders say the group is committed to resisting Israeli air and ground attack. Hezbollah is firing rockets and drones into northern and central Israel with regular success.
Last week, for example, four Israeli soldiers were killed and 55 injured in a drone attack on a training base in the north of the country. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed the military would learn lessons from the “painful” attack.
Israel’s US THAAD will be protected by Israel’s layered defense network. But drones, rockets and missiles can — and already have — evaded it.
THAAD “is a very good radar, it’s a very powerful radar, but it’s also a very big target,” Karako said.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel on October 9, 2024.
Ammar Awad/Reuters
The system, Kaushal added, “is not designed to operate against low-flying targets such as UAVs and cruise missiles.”
2019 saw a North Korean drone crash near a South Korean THAAD system because it flew below its radar range.
The success of Israel’s other air defense systems, Kaushal said, “will determine how secure the THAAD batteries are against Iranian and Hezbollah efforts to target them.”
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
