Article Posted on : - Aug 17, 2011

The Iron Dome anti-missile defence system. A Wikipedia photo

TUCSON (BNS): American defence firm Raytheon has joined hands with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to jointly market the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system in the United States.

The Rafael-made weapon system capable of intercepting short-range rockets, artillery and mortar shells has been deployed with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) after completing flight test trials in 2010.

The air defence system has been designed to counter terrorist rocket attacks against Israeli forces.

“Iron Dome complements other Raytheon weapons that provide intercept capabilities to the US Army’s Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar initiative at forward operating bases,” said Mike Booen, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Advanced Security and Directed Energy Systems product line.

“Iron Dome can be seamlessly integrated with Raytheon’s C-RAM systems to complete the layered defense,” the official added.

Raytheon and Rafael have also teamed up for the ‘David Sling’ missile defence programme and the ‘Blue Sparrow’ missile defence targets programme.

“The Iron Dome teaming builds on our decade-long, ongoing cooperation with Raytheon Missile Systems to provide air and missile defense solutions,” said David Stemer, Rafael executive vice president and general manager of Rafael's Missile Division.

Israel has deployed two batteries of the new air defence system in its military to date and plans to increase the number of operational batteries to six in the coming years.