The Pentagon has confirmed it is sending a THAAD missile defence system and US troops to Israel, publicly acknowledging that US troops will be on the ground assisting in Israel's defence.
They're air defense operators, just like gets deployed around Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure.
If you want to feel bad about anything, it's that this will significantly reduce the likelihood that Iran can threaten Israel with ballistic missiles.
THAAD is really good at what it does, and something tells me that the Iranians aren't going to want to waste their entire stock pile on fruitless saturation attempts. To say nothing of their concerns of killing American troops.
As in, this provides Israel even greater latitude on their quest to start a hot war with Iran, without dramatically increasing any threat to their military bases and government buildings. Well, at least not from ballistic missiles.
As in, this provides Israel even greater latitude on their quest to start a hot war with Iran, without dramatically increasing any threat to their military bases and government buildings. Well, at least not from ballistic missiles.
That's also a very good point. It's like shielding a bully while they continue to bully other people. While I wouldn't mind seeing that bully getting smacked by the other people they oppress, I also don't want to see more people dying either. However, I know Iran has been targeting military targets and not civilian ones. So...
Anyway, this is all just fucked up and I want to see an end to this senseless violence and death, and I want to see Israel getting what they fucking deserve. That is the whole country should cease to exist in terms of land and borders and the land be returned to Palestinians after what they fucking did.
THAAD can be overwhelmed similar to Israel's own missile systems. There has been a THAAD system in Israel since 2019 so it already failed during Iran's retaliation.
The US is sending around 100 US troops with the new system so there will be additional interception capabilities. But it remains unlikely this will affect a saturation missile attack.
I'm not saying it can't be. I'm saying I don't believe Iran has the capabilities or stockpiles available to do so, given the other American assets in theatre, or a desire to risk killing American troops.
I suspect they're deploying THAAD because of the failures of David's Sling during the last missile attack.
Air defense systems protect specific targets, not countries. Given the THAAD's long track record under US operators, I would wager that the bases and targets that Iranian missiles hit, either lacked sufficient coverage, had poorly trained Israeli personnel, and/or were covered by David's Sling.
Of course, I could be wrong, but we won't know for many many years given how secretive Israel is on these matters.
Edit: I'm not seeing any reports of active THAAD deployments in Israel prior to this announcement, just previous deployments to Israel, including for training. But no mention if they rotated out prior to the Iranian missile strike, or that they were present for it.
I'm not saying they weren't there, but do you have a source confirms they were present during this most recent attack?
In March 2019, Bravo Battery, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment (B-2 THAAD), 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade[55] was deployed at Nevatim Airbase during a joint US-Israeli drill, after which it was to be moved to an undisclosed location in the Negev desert in southern Israel.[56] The X-Band radar system, which is part of the THAAD system, has been deployed at Nevatim since 2008.[57]
On October 13, 2024, the Pentagon announced it will send an air defense system along with about 100 U.S. troops to operate it. The deployment comes after two direct missile attacks from Iran against Israel on April 13 and Oct. 1.
And then it talks about a deployment 5 years ago for a training exercise.
These aren't brick and mortar buildings, they're mobile platforms, and mobile air defense batteries redeploy all the time.
Again, I am not closed to the idea that there was US military operated THAAD system in Israel during that attack, I just can't find any reports confirming that, or even eluding to it.
Never mind, I misread that last bit. I will take a look at it later when I have a few moments, thank you.
I'm not opposed to this one honestly, it's defensive and Israelis are quite literally holding the world hostage in a way that every other nuclear power simply implies.
It doesn't, Israel is going to do whatever they want just as they always have. We're they not aggressive yet, did I miss calm level headed Israeli sometime in the last 50 years? No?
Iran never intended to strike with authority, they struck back because they are intended to, they didn't want involved and now they have every reason not to be.
Iran isn't now not has it ever truly been a moderating influence in Israel.
There's no change to the math, even without the us Israel is more than equipped to lay siege to Gaza for the foreseeable future and Iran had no intention of getting involved.
Imagine the cops in Uvalde TX blocking parents from entering the school to stop the school shooter.
They are not directly attacking the children, but they are protecting the shooter from being stopped. Defending Israel is that times a thousand.
The THAAD systems are not defending civilian areas but Israeli military bases. To make matters worse almost all the weapons used by Israel are made in the USA.
Dummy use dead kids to make a dumb irrelevant point, they're not punctuation marks for bad ideas. Similarly it's not at like that.
It's not. That's your belief it just doesn't really stand the test of basic reality.
Yes, that's generally where missile defense systems exist and you'll notice is almost certainly going to protect our top secret listening post. You know that thing that if it's destroyed weakens intelligence gathering from most of the middle east and huge swaths of Asia.
There's are lots of reasons to be upset at the us, tons in fact. Defense systems aren't really one of those. They just let us get boots on the ground and if the American playbook holds true a good third of those people will be intelligence assets. Similarly thaad can intercept outgoing missiles as well so there's also the threat that the US can now directly stop an Israeli missile strike if they do not want it to happen.
This isn't the first time thaad has gone to Israel and they always end up protecting the expensive goofball not Israeli assets.
This is like, technically a weapon. It's a tool for destroying enemy missiles in the air before they impact their target. It's about as purely defensive of a weapon as you can get.
The US soldiers are operating the missile defense system, so there's not room for Israel to "creatively" repurpose them. They aren't assisting in any missions in Palestine, they're purely defending against Iranian missiles.
The US providing this defense however allows Israel to be even more belligerent without fear of retaliation, possibly the only thing stopping them from expanding their genocide faster.
There is no such thing as a defensive weapon. Its entire purpose is shielding them from the consequences of their own actions. Its just the armor of the tank that is Israels military. Its an integral part of the weapon.
And now they will claim the US soldiers were attacked after placing them in the line of fire and use it as another excuse to go to war with Iran and continue exterminating Palestinians. It truly is sickening that they are fully participating in genocide.