US Army test-fires first Iron Dome interceptor with Israeli help

The US Army completed a firing test of the first Iron Dome missile defence battery purchased by the United States.

The Defence Ministry announced on Monday that a series of experiments took place at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and saw US Army troops successfully intercept targets.

The tests were done in collaboration with the Israeli Defence Ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and mPrest, producers of software technology.

According to a statement released by the ministry, the Iron Dome system in its American configuration is expected “to protect deployed American forces from a variety of aerial threats, including cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, rockets and shrapnel.”

America has its THAAD anti-ballistic missile defence system designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase, but it does not have any short-range air defence solutions.

The US has made the purchase to fill its short-term needs for an Indirect Fire Protection Capability, until a permanent solution to the problem is put in place to best protect ground manoeuvring troops against an increasingly wide range of aerial threats, including short-range projectiles.

The US Army purchased the two off-the-shelf batteries from Rafael in August 2019 that were delivered in late 2020. The army has since been in the process of examining and building training systems for the batteries.