Following the announcement by america’ largest defence producing agency Lockheed Martin {that a} main framework settlement had been reached to quadruple annual manufacturing of interceptors for the Terminal Excessive Altitude Space Protection (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system, boosting output from 96 to 400 missiles, important questions have been raised relating to the affordability of expanded procurement charges. Pentagon officers have cited the intensifying menace of superior ballistic missile techniques as a main issue stimulating curiosity in drastically increasing the variety of interceptors out there, following the THAAD techniques’ first excessive depth fight take a look at in June 2025 after they had been deployed by the U.S. Army to guard Israeli airspace. The Army’s deployment of THAAD to Israel was introduced October 13, 2024, in response to Iran and the Yemeni Ansurullah Coalition’s demonstrated capabilities to launch lengthy vary missile strikes towards delicate navy targets throughout the nation.
Following Israel’s initiation of a serious air assault towards Iran in on June 13, 2025, the U.S. Army expended over 150 anti-ballistic missile interceptors from the THAAD system to intercept Iranian ballistic missile assaults throughout 11 days of hostilities. This determine was confirmed within the closing week of July to have far exceeded prior estimates for the portions of interceptors used, and represented over 25 p.c of the Army’s whole arsenal deployed all over the world. Reporting on the expenditure of THAAD interceptors, the Wall Road Journal reported: “Working alongside Israeli techniques, THAAD operators burned by way of munitions at a livid clip, firing greater than 150 missiles to shoot down the waves of Iranian ballistic missiles, in line with U.S. officers… That’s practically 1 / 4 of the interceptors ever bought by the Pentagon.” “The demand [for interceptors] was so staggering that at one level, the Pentagon thought-about a plan to divert interceptors bought by Saudi Arabia to the techniques in Israel,” the Journal additional reported, citing an official.
Every THAAD interceptor launch prices roughly $15.5 million, with the defence of Israeli airspace utilizing these techniques for 11 days is conservatively estimated to have price over $2.35 billion. This was regardless of Iran having launched missile assaults with a comparatively low depth, and the numerous help which U.S. Army THAAD techniques gained from each Navy AEGIS ballistic missile defence techniques, and from Israel’s personal missile defences. Regardless of these mixed elements, the flexibility of the THAAD system to guard Israeli territory was restricted, with U.S. sources broadly confirming excessive injury to navy and strategic targets throughout Israel. President Donald Trump noticed days after the top of hostilities: “Particularly these final couple of days, Israel was hit actually exhausting. These ballistic missiles, boy they took out loads of buildings,” reflecting the broader consensus on this regard.
Annual procurement of 400 interceptors would price the U.S. Army roughly $6.2 billion per 12 months, at a time when funding is stretched between a number of applications, such because the urgently wanted M1E3 Abrams principal battle tank which is essentially the most bold Western tank program pursued in over half a century, and the event of a closely enhanced variant of the decrease tier MIM-104 Patriot air defence system. THAAD techniques are broadly deployed throughout a number of theatres, with the Army having made its first deployment in June 2009 to Hawaii to supply a defence towards doable North Korean ballistic missile assaults. Advances in North Korea’s intermediate vary ballistic missile program led a second THAAD unit to be deployed to Guam in 2013. The techniques have additionally been examined on Wake Island, which has gained rising significance in plans for a possible battle with North Korea as an alternative choice to Guam for basing. A system was subsequently deployed in South Korea from late 2016. With the arsenals of North Korea and China dwarfing that of Iran in dimension and class, the utility and price effectiveness of THAAD deployments within the Pacific has been dropped at critical query.
The viability of THAAD to counter fashionable ballistic missile arsenals has more and more been questioned by analysts, significantly because the Chinese language, Russian and North Korean arsenals have more and more built-in hypersonic glide autos onto their new missile varieties. North Korea introduced its first intermediate vary ballistic missile with such a glide automobile, the Hwasong-16B, into service in mid-2024, whereas Russia did so in December 2025 with the Oreshnik missile system. Such glide autos facilitate excessive reentry speeds, outstandingly excessive ranges of manoeuvrability, and the flexibility to strike from surprising instructions, which makes them successfully unattainable to reliably intercept for techniques resembling THAAD. Iran in June made restricted use of its personal hypersonic glide automobile geared up ballistic missile, the Fattah, which is believed to have been developed with North Korean help, and which brought on appreciable concern among the many Israeli navy management, fuelling requires a deep revision of Israel’s missile defence plans.
