
US faces $2 bln, year-long effort to replenish missile interceptors used to defend Israel
The cost to develop new interceptors for the two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries could approach $2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing US officials and defense analysts.
US officials said over 150 missiles were launched in response to Iranian attacks. 'That is nearly a quarter of the interceptors ever purchased by the Pentagon,' according to the Journal.
Other types of interceptors were also deployed to protect Israel, including 80 SM-3s.
Over the past two years, the US military has also expended a substantial number of munitions countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
That campaign continued until the Trump administration launched an offensive operation targeting Houthi leadership and weapons infrastructure in Yemen.
The effort consumed large quantities of US interceptor missiles, including SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 variants.
Estimates for each cost are as follows: $2.1 million for an SM-2, $3.9 million for an SM-6 and $9.7 million for each SM-3 Block IB or $28 million for SM-3 Block IIA.
While Israel has its own multi-layered air defense system, supported in large part by the US, it was running low on interceptors, US officials told WSJ.
And one US official reportedly said that if Iran had decided to continue lobbing missiles, drones and rockets at Israel, the latter could easily have burned through its Arrow 3 munitions.
Israel uses the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems for intercepting medium- and long-range ballistic missiles, as well as David's Sling and Iron Dome for short-range rockets and projectiles.
Separately, the US successfully defeated the 'largest single Patriot engagement in US military history' when Iran retaliated for the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites on the night of June 21 and lobbed a barrage of short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
In its strikes on Iran, the US dropped a total of 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs), which are 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, and a US guided-missile submarine launched over two dozen Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles.
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