The US Army, the Israel Missile Defense Organization and RAFAEL successfully completed a live fire test of the first US Army Iron Dome Defense System (IDDS-A) Battery, acquired by the US from Israel.
The Israeli Defense Ministry spokesperson said in a statement Monday that the performance and live fire test was conducted at the White Sands New Mexico (WSMR) test range, and was the first time US soldiers intercepted live targets employing the Iron Dome System.
Iron Dome developers Rafael, IAI Elta and mPrest supported the test.
“The United States and Israel signed an agreement in August 2019 for the procurement of two IDDS-A batteries,” the spokesperson said. “The batteries were delivered in 2020 and have since undergone a process of acceptance testing and operator training over the past months.”
The US Army Iron Dome System (IDDS-A) is designed to defend supported forces against a range of threats including cruise missiles, unmanned aircraft systems, rockets, artillery and mortar threats.
The prime contractor for the development and production of the Iron Dome is Rafael Advanced Systems.
The MMR radar is developed by ELTA, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and the command and control system (BMC), is developed by mPrest.
IMDO within the Directorate of Defense R & D in the Ministry of Defense leads the development of Israel’s multi-layered defense array, which is composed of 4 operational layers: Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow-2 and Arrow-3.