The Pentagon has confirmed it is sending a THAAD missile defence system and US troops to Israel, publicly acknowledging that US troops will be on the ground assisting in Israel’s defence.
The Pentagon has confirmed it is sending a THAAD missile defence system and US troops to Israel, publicly acknowledging that US troops will be on the ground assisting in Israel’s defence.
I’m not saying it can’t be. I’m saying I don’t believe Iran has the capabilities or stockpiles available to do so, given the other American assets in theatre, or a desire to risk killing American troops.
I suspect they’re deploying THAAD because of the failures of David’s Sling during the last missile attack.
Air defense systems protect specific targets, not countries. Given the THAAD’s long track record under US operators, I would wager that the bases and targets that Iranian missiles hit, either lacked sufficient coverage, had poorly trained Israeli personnel, and/or were covered by David’s Sling.
Of course, I could be wrong, but we won’t know for many many years given how secretive Israel is on these matters.
Edit: I’m not seeing any reports of active THAAD deployments in Israel prior to this announcement, just previous deployments to Israel, including for training. But no mention if they rotated out prior to the Iranian missile strike, or that they were present for it.
I’m not saying they weren’t there, but do you have a source confirms they were present during this most recent attack?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_High_Altitude_Area_Defense
In March 2019, Bravo Battery, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment (B-2 THAAD), 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade[55] was deployed at Nevatim Airbase during a joint US-Israeli drill, after which it was to be moved to an undisclosed location in the Negev desert in southern Israel.[56] The X-Band radar system, which is part of the THAAD system, has been deployed at Nevatim since 2008.[57]
On October 13, 2024, the Pentagon announced it will send an air defense system along with about 100 U.S. troops to operate it. The deployment comes after two direct missile attacks from Iran against Israel on April 13 and Oct. 1.
I’m not opposed to this one honestly, it’s defensive and Israelis are quite literally holding the world hostage in a way that every other nuclear power simply implies.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
This defense enables and emboldens Israeli aggression.
It removes, or significantly reduces, the threat posed by Iranian ballistic missiles.
That means, it removes, or reduces, any deterrent effect they have, on moderating Israel.
This is not good, but less because of the risk of American KIA, and more because of how it changes the Israeli calculus.
Not really. Iran wants an excuse to sit it out and they just got it.
What it will do is give the us more intelligence agents in the ground figuring out what the actual duck is going on.
We don’t care about isrealis killing ours. Neither attacking a ship nor running a civilian over with a bulldozer raised too much issue.
I’m quite aware of THAAD’s capabilities, including its tracking radars, at least as far as publicly disclosed information goes.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about this reducing, or removing, one of Iran’s primary means of deterrence against Israeli attacks.
If Israel doesn’t have to worry about the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, it frees them up for an even more aggressive course of action.
Unless you’re suggesting that this means Israel can, and should, continue to directly attack Iran…?
No I mean they can intercept Israeli missiles and they aren’t Israeli controlled.
Yes, that first but confirms the news article.
And then it talks about a deployment 5 years ago for a training exercise.These aren’t brick and mortar buildings, they’re mobile platforms, and mobile air defense batteries redeploy all the time.Again, I am not closed to the idea that there was US military operated THAAD system in Israel during that attack, I just can’t find any reports confirming that, or even eluding to it.Never mind, I misread that last bit. I will take a look at it later when I have a few moments, thank you.