U.S. to Bolster Israel’s Missile Defenses

“I think it [the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel] probably highlights an underlying problem that we were already facing, which is [that] the defense industrial base is not sufficiently large enough to provide for U.S. national security priorities and those of our partners and allies across the globe,” said Jonathan Lord, the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

The Iron Dome, manufactured by Israeli defense firm Rafael and co-produced by U.S. defense giant RTX (formerly known as Raytheon), is an air defense system. It uses a radar to detect incoming short-range missiles (launched from within 2.5 to 43 miles away) and assesses whether they are heading toward urban areas. If the threat is credible, the system launches a missile—known as the Tamir interceptor missile—to destroy the rocket.

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