US general: Iron Dome ready to deploy if Ukraine asks

Israel would need to give permission for the U.S. to supply Ukraine with its Iron Dome technology.

By JNS

There is an Iron Dome ready for deployment should Ukraine request it, an American general told U.S. senators last week.

At a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces meeting hearing testimony on missile defense activities, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked why the Iron Dome air-defense system was not being used in Ukraine considering that the U.S. provided financial assistance to Israel to develop it.

“We helped pay for it. We sent something like $3 billion to Israel to develop it,” King said. “Wouldn’t this be a very important resource for the Ukrainians since their principal problem right now is missile defense?”

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John F. Plumb responded by saying that he was not aware that the U.S. was supplying Ukraine with the Iron Dome.

Lt.-Gen. Daniel Karbler, head of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, pointed out that the U.S. has two Iron Dome batteries, with one currently available.

“The army does have one [Iron Dome battery] available for deployment if we get a request from it,” Karbler said.

The Iron Dome was developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, with the U.S. providing financial assistance for the project to the tune of $2.6 billion over the years.

Israel would need to give permission for the U.S. to supply Ukraine with its Iron Dome technology.

Iron Dome has been instrumental in protecting Israeli civilians against terrorists’ rockets from over the border. In the recent conflict with Palestinian Islamic Jihad in which nearly 1,500 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, Iron Dome intercepted 95% of rockets on their way topopulated areas, according to the Israel Defense Forces.