U.S. Army Test Fires Israeli Iron Dome

The U.S. Army has completed an interceptor test of the Iron Dome air defense system it bought from Israel.

Held in June at the WHITE SANDS test field in U.S. state of New Mexico, it is the second event of its kind since two RAFAEL-made Iron Dome Defense System-Army (IDDS-A) batteries were supplied to the service at the end of 2020.

IDDS-A will defend supported forces within fixed and semi-fixed locations against sub-sonic Cruise Missiles (CM), Groups 2&3 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and rockets, artillery, and mortar threats.

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to 3-43 Air Defense Artillery Battalion successfully detected, tracked, and intercepted multiple CM and UAS surrogate targets. The testing prepares the system for U.S. operational forces use by ensuring it meets U.S. Army safety standards and that the system will effectively operate within the U.S. AMD architecture, Rafael said in a release.

The Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) in the Directorate of Defense Research and Development leads the development of Israel’s multi-tiered air defense array, based on four operational layers: Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow 2, and Arrow 3.