Follow us on social

THAAD

Reports: Despite limited stockpile, US gives Israel another THAAD

This would mean almost a third of America’s premier missile defense batteries will be in service of another country

Reporting | QiOSK

Amid the broken ceasefire in Gaza and boiling Israel-Iran tensions, Arab and Israeli media outlets are reporting that the U.S. is now deploying more missile defense capabilities to Israel.

The news broke ahead of President Trump’s Monday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. NBC News previously reported on March 30 that defense officials had approved a second Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system’s relocation to the Middle East; the Telegraph reported Monday that a C-5M Super Galaxy, a large U.S. transport aircraft able to carry a THAAD system, was at Nevatim airbase in Southern Israel on Saturday.

“America is understood to have delivered an advanced missile defence system to Israel,” the Telegraph reported.

One of the U.S.’s most powerful anti-missile systems, THAAD can intercept incoming projectiles with kinetic energy, in a process often referred to as “hit-to-kill,” or “kinetic kill.” Through this process, THAAD can intercept ballistic missiles from up to about 120 miles away.

With seven THAAD battery systems in its arsenal, the U.S. previously deployed a battery to Israel in October 2024 after an Iranian missile strike on Israeli soil earlier that month. That first battery system has gotten a “workout," according to reports but it is not clear whether it successfully intercepted any incoming missiles.

"If reports that a second THAAD missile battery is being deployed to Israel are true, this would put almost a third of U.S. THAAD systems in the small country,” Jennifer Kavanagh, Senior Fellow and Director of Military Analysis at Defense Priorities, told RS. “This incredible commitment of scarce resources is out of proportion with the limited U.S. interests in the Middle East and the Trump administration's stated intent to focus on security threats in Asia.”

One hundred U.S. soldiers went to Israel to help operate the first THAAD system sent there, suggesting more troops could be on their way to operate a reported second one.

This follows numerous other weapons sent to Israel in the last few weeks, which Kavanagh said includes B-2 bombers, fighter jets and warships, a Navy carrier strike group, and Patriot air defense systems. Meanwhile, Israel already has other anti-missile systems on hand, including missile-based projectile interception system Iron Dome and David’s Sling, which can take out short-range targets.

Altogether, this continued proliferation of advanced weapons systems in the region creates prospects for more explosive conflict under already tenuous geopolitical conditions.

With THAAD, “the Trump team might be setting the foundation for further escalation in the region, including strikes on Iran. In advance of such a move, U.S. defense leaders might put air defense and other assets in place to guard Israel from any Iranian blow back,” Kavanagh explained.

“Regardless of the intent, the deployment of second THAAD sucks the United States more deeply into a region it has been trying to get out of and risks pulling it more directly into Israel's ongoing wars with its neighbors, not least because a THAAD in Israel will mean more U.S. operators on the ground in that country as well,” she added.

Indeed, others observed that the THAAD deployment enables Israel to pursue further conflict with its neighbors.

“The deployment of a second THAAD missile defense battery to Israel could just be another symbol of the Trump administration's ‘all in’ support for Israeli aggression in Gaza and beyond,” said William Hartung, a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Or it could have specific relevance to defending Israel from a counter-attack in the event that it goes forward with plans to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. This is precisely the wrong approach.”


Top Image Credit: A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska during Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-18 in Kodiak, Alaska, U.S. on July 11, 2017. Picture taken on July 11, 2017. Courtesy Leah Garton/Missile Defense Agency/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.
Reporting | QiOSK
Trump and Keith Kellogg
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump and Keith Kellogg (now Trump's Ukraine envoy) in 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump's silence on loss of Ukraine lithium territory speaks volumes

Europe

Last week, Russian military forces seized a valuable lithium field in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the latest success of Moscow’s grinding summer offensive.

The lithium deposit in question is considered rather small by industry analysts, but is said to be a desirable prize nonetheless due to the concentration and high-quality of its ore. In other words, it is just the kind of asset that the Trump administration seemed eager to exploit when it signed its much heralded minerals agreement with Ukraine earlier this year.

keep readingShow less
Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?
Top photo credit: Palestinians walk to collect aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?

Middle East

Many human rights organizations say it should shut down. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed hundreds of Palestinians at or around its aid centers. And yet, the U.S. has committed no less than $30 million toward the controversial, Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

As famine-like conditions grip Gaza, the GHF says it has given over 50 million meals to Palestinians at its four aid centers in central and southern Gaza Strip since late May. These centers are operated by armed U.S. private contractors, and secured by IDF forces present at or near them.

keep readingShow less
mali
Heads of state of Mali, Assimi Goita, Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani and Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, pose for photographs during the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou//File Photo

Post-coup juntas across the Sahel face serious crises

Africa

In Mali, General Assimi Goïta, who took power in a 2020 coup, now plans to remain in power through at least the end of this decade, as do his counterparts in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. As long-ruling juntas consolidate power in national capitals, much of the Sahelian terrain remains out of government control.

Recent attacks on government security forces in Djibo (Burkina Faso), Timbuktu (Mali), and Eknewane (Niger) have all underscored the depth of the insecurity. The Sahelian governments face a powerful threat from jihadist forces in two organizations, Jama‘at Nusrat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin (the Group for Supporting Islam and Muslims, JNIM, which is part of al-Qaida) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). The Sahelian governments also face conventional rebel challengers and interact, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes in tension, with various vigilantes and community-based armed groups.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.