Iron Dome (Photo Ministry of Defense Spokesperson and Public Relations Department)
The United States Marine Corps is set to acquire three Iron Dome anti-missile defense batteries from Israel in a deal worth a reported $200 million. The deal includes the acquisition of almost 2,000 Tamir missiles and more. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is the prime contractor for the development and production of Iron Dome, which is developed in cooperation with the U.S.
The news comes just a few weeks after the American government gave the green light to Israel to go ahead with a $4.3 billion deal to sell its Arrow-3 missile, part of Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome missile defense system, to Germany, the largest such defense deal in the country’s history.
The acquisition comes after the Marine Corps held successful tests of the Tamir Iron Dome interceptors in October 2022. A series of three trials were carried out and the system successfully intercepted a wide variety of targets each time.
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A posting on the U.S. government’s System for Award Management (SAM) contracting website stated, “Three Batteries of MRIC systems consisting of 1,840 Tamir missiles, 44 Expeditionary launchers integrated with Iron Dome Missile Firing Unit Launch Control Electronics (LCE), 11 mini-Battle Management and Control (mBMC) systems with Uplinks compatible with the LCE and integrated with expeditionary Command and Control (C2) (i.e., the Processing and Display Subsystem (PDS) from the USMC Common Aviation Command and Control System (CAC2S).”
The U.S. Marines intend to deploy the MRIC system to defend permanently and operationally fixed sites in the designated Area of Operations (AO). The Marines said that this integration “provides the Marine Expeditionary Force an air defense umbrella that detects, tracks, identifies and defeats enemy cruise missile threats, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and other identified aerial threats.”
Rafael boasts that the Tamir interceptor is capable of intercepting cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, a variety of rockets, mortars and Precision Guided Missiles. The interceptor was developed by RAFAEL, which was a partner in adapting it to the configuration of the Marine Corps and in conducting the experiment.
Since its very first combat interception operated by the Israeli Air Force in April 2011, IRON DOME has proven to be a groundbreaking air defense system responsible for the resilience and security of the State of Israel. Developed in record time of just 2.5 years by a brilliant team of experts, IRON DOME has become the only multi-mission system in the world that provides a combat-proven solution to defeat Very Short Range (VSHORAD), as well as rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) threats, aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, PGMs, and cruise missiles, for land and naval air defense, operating 24/7, in all weather conditions.
