The US Marine Corps announced Saturday it is planning to purchase three batteries of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, in a deal that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The deal allows the Israeli developers of air defense systems, score another commercial achievement after the US government approved the sale of an Israeli air defense system, the Arrow-3, to Germany at approximately $3.5 billion.
Any Iron Dome sale, which is a joint Israeli-American project, must be approved by both countries before a deal with a third party.
According to Walla website, it is assumed that the new deal will include about 2,000 Tamir anti-missiles and 44 launchers, as well as control systems. The contract will be signed directly with the American corporation Raytheon, a partner of the Rafael state defense concern in the production of the Iron Dome and David’s Sling.
A significant part of the weapons will be produced in the United States, and not at the Rafael enterprises in Israel.
This is the second time the US buys Iron Dome systems from Israel. It had bought two Iron Dome batteries from Israel for $340 million.
But the acquisition of the Israeli system, which was largely the result of pressure from pro-Israeli lawmakers, faced a central problem. Rafael refused to provide the US military with Iron Dome’s source code, hampering the Americans’ ability to integrate the system into their air defenses.
Under the new deal, the Marine Corps plans to use Iron Dome to protect its troops from cruise missiles, drones, rockets and artillery attacks.
In June, the Marine Corps announced it had conducted two successful live-fire tests of the Tamir missiles and said it was satisfied with the Iron Dome capacities to hit cruise missiles and other targets.
The Iron Dome system was developed by Rafael and the Ministry of Defense to protect Israeli Army bases and settlements from rocket attacks fired from Gaza.
In 2011, the Iron Dome scored its first interception of a missile fired at Ashkelon. To date, the system has completed more than 2,400 operational interceptions, with a success rate of more than 90 percent.
