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| Rafael's Iron Dome Successfully Tests Live Fire |
Quoted from Bulgarian Military, the US is the first country besides Israel to be armed with an Iron Dome. An agreement for the purchase of 2 Iron Dome batteries was signed in 2020. In North America, the manufacturer of Iron Dome is Raytheon Rafael Area Protection Systems, a joint venture between Israel's Rafael and America's Raytheon Technologies.
The successful direct fire meant the US began deploying the Army's Iron Dome Defense System [IDDS-A] batteries as part of its missile defense. The role of US IDDS is to counter potential subsonic cruise missiles [CM], Group 2 and 3 [UAS] unmanned aircraft systems, and missile, artillery, and mortar threats.
The US will seek to safely integrate Iron Dome into the US military's missile defense architecture. This was conveyed by Major General Brian Gibson, Commander of the Army Air and Missile Defense Command based at Pearl Harbor.
Quoted from Rafael, Iron Dome was created to protect deployed and maneuverable troops, strategic assets, populated areas, and cities from various threats. This is the case with C-RAM, Cruise Missiles, Precise Guided Missile (PGM), UAVs, Air Breathing Threats (ABT), and solid salvos.
The benefits claimed by Rafael against Iron Dome are as follows.
- Battle proven with over 2,000 interceptions
- More than 90% success rate
- Maneuvering Troop Defense
- Fast reaction time
- Day/night, all weather capability
- Salvo interception ability
- Function as a stand-alone system or as a layer in a multilayer air defense system
- Cost-effective interceptor