Peter Mitchell
In an unprecedented move, the Department of Defense announced over the holiday weekend that it would be deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to Israel to assist in defending Israeli airspace against Iranian ballistic missiles. By the time you’re reading this, it’s almost certainly already operational.
The deployment of US air defense systems to an allied country isn’t what’s unprecedented. It isn’t even the deployment to Israel, specifically. THAAD participated in a joint readiness exercise on Nevatim Air Base and later at an undisclosed site in the Negev back in March 2019. And Patriot battalions have regularly rotated through the biannual Juniper Cobra missile defense exercise. What’s different this time is that the United States has never before overtly deployed troops to Israel during an ongoing war. The combat deployment of THAAD marks a significant step in US-Israeli integrated missile defense cooperation, but it is also sending a strategic signal to Iran and other regional actors. While THAAD provides a substantial asset in terms of air defense capabilities, three important takeaways go beyond the technical details and tactical significance.
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