U.S. Army Scraps $1 Billion Iron Dome Purchase Plan After Concerns Over Performance Limitations

The United States Army has announced the termination of plans to acquire Iron Dome short ranged air defence systems from Israel, following the announcement of a potential acquisition in 2019 under a $1 billion contract. The Iron Dome is manufactured by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, but has yet to find an export client despite having been marketed for over ten years. The Army has expressed doubt in the Iron Dome’s ability to intercept cruise missiles - which would be critical to plugging the gap in existing American missile defences. The system was designed to provide defence against artillery and cruise missile attacks, but is not capable of intercepting aircraft or ballistic missiles.

A further issue cited by the U.S. Army was Israel’s refusal to provide the Iron Dome’s source codes, which would seriously restricted the service’s ability to integrate it into its existing air defence network. U.S. Army General Mike Murray, head of Army Futures Command, said the service identified a number of problems with the Iron Dome including cyber vulnerabilities and operational shortcomings, and stated in conclusion: “We believe we cannot integrate them into our air defence system based on some interoperability challenges, some cyber challenges and some other challenges.” The Iron Dome has for years reportedly been integrated into Israel’s air defence network, which is overwhelmingly comprised of American systems including the MIM-23 Hawk, MIM-104 Patriot and the David’s Sling which is built around American technologies supplied by Raytheon. This raises some questions regarding the claim that the Iron Dome cannot be integrated into a network comprised of American systems.