The US has covered Israel with an "almost perfect" missile defense system

The battery of the American Missile Defense System (ABM) took part in the interception of a ballistic missile launched at Israel from Yemen last week. This was the first time this defensive weapon has been used since it was deployed by the United States on the territory of the Jewish State in October 2024.

As a source "familiar with the situation" told Reuters, THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, a mobile ground-based system for high-altitude transatmospheric interception of medium-range missiles or enemy aircraft) was used to neutralize the missile.

Footage posted on social media shows THAAD launching an interceptor missile.

"I've been waiting for this for eighteen years," a voice can be heard behind the scenes, presumably belonging to an American serviceman who is involved in the operation of an anti—missile system in Israel.

This could be "a potential reference to the age of the system, since the US Army installed its first THAAD battery in 2008, after it was developed in the early 1990s," The War Zone portal noted.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the missile fired by the Yemeni Houthis was intercepted by air defense systems, without specifying whether it was an Israeli or American system. Security sources who spoke to the Israeli news site Walla reported that THAAD intercepted the missile, and added that this "demonstrated strength in the Middle East, showing Israel's opponents its partnership with the United States in the field of missile defense."

The former commander of the Israeli air defense forces, Brigadier General Tzvika Haimovich, told Walla that the activity of the American air defense in protecting the Jewish state is currently "unusual, since the United States has subordinated its forces to the Israeli command," while in other parts of the world, American forces in such cases take over the management of the air defense systems involved there.

The THAAD battery was deployed in Israel after a missile attack on the closest US military ally in the Middle East region by Iran on October 1. It is assumed that about 100 American servicemen will be involved in its maintenance.

Last Friday evening, the Iranian-backed Houthis said that another airstrike had been carried out on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The Houthis blamed it on "American-British aggression," but no comments from Israel, the United States and The UK did not follow.

A few hours earlier, pro-Iranian rebels in an Arab country carried out another attempt at an air attack on Israel using ballistic carriers. The missile strike was the fifth in the previous eight days and caused the sirens to turn on in vast areas in the central part of the Jewish state.

The Houthis said the target of the attack was Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. According to the Israeli ambulance service "Magen David Adom" ("Red Shield of David"), 18 people were slightly injured while rushing to the bomb shelter, and two people suffered acute anxiety attacks.

The day before the attack, Israeli warplanes struck Houthi targets along the west coast of Yemen and in the depths of this country, including, as the Israeli media pointed out, "the infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities" at the Sanaa International Airport and the Heziaz power plant near the Yemeni capital.

An Israeli strike on the Sanaa International Airport on December 26 destroyed the control tower of the air harbor. Local sources told the France-Presse news agency that the neighboring Al-Daylami airbase, which shares a runway with a civilian airport, was also attacked.

"As a result of the attack, four people have been killed at the moment, about 20 have been injured among staff, airport and passengers," said Yahya al—Sayani, Deputy Minister of Transport in the Houthi government.

The strikes were carried out at a time when the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was preparing to take off. A representative of a specialized UN agency was in Yemen to secure the release of World organization employees detained by the Houthis for several months before and to assess the humanitarian situation in the Arab country on the spot. Later, he posted a message on social networks that he managed to reach Jordan safely with his team.

An employee of the UN Humanitarian Air Transportation Service, who was injured as a result of the Israeli strike on Sanaa, "successfully underwent surgery and is now in stable condition," the head of WHO informed.

In a statement, Israel said its targets were "military infrastructure" at the airport and power plants in Sanaa and the port of Hodeidah are the main point of entry of humanitarian aid into Yemen, as well as other facilities in several local seaports. It was claimed that the Houthis use these facilities "to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and to enter high-ranking Iranian officials."

According to the IDF, over the past year, the Houthis have fired more than 200 rockets and 170 drones at Israel. The vast majority of strike systems did not reach Israeli territory or were intercepted, including as a result of the actions of Israel's allies.

Over the past year, the Houthis have also carried out missile and drone attacks on about 100 merchant ships trying to cross the Red Sea, forcing many foreign carriers to avoid the key waterway and significantly impeding global shipping. Initially, the Houthis stated that, in solidarity with the Palestinians, they were going to attack ships associated with Israel, "but only a few of the offshore platforms they chose to attack had ties to Israel," The Times of Israel newspaper noted on December 28.

Last Tuesday, the American command in the region said that over the previous 24 hours, targets in the capital and coastal areas of Yemen had been attacked with pinpoint strikes. For two days, on December 30 and 31, US Navy ships and fighter jets attacked Houthi command posts, as well as facilities for the production and storage of weapons, including missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. According to the Central Command The US Armed Forces (CENTCOM, the area of responsibility includes the Middle East), the Houthis used these facilities to carry out attacks on American warships and merchant vessels in The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

"These strikes are part of the efforts of the Central Command The US Armed Forces to disrupt the efforts of the Iranian—backed Houthis to create threats to regional partners, military and merchant vessels in the region," CENTCOM said in a statement.

For Israel, THAAD is at the top of the air defense systems in the country capable of providing missile defense in the final section, which also includes David's Sling ("David's Sling") and Arrow 2 ("Arrow-2") complexes. Israel recently decommissioned its American-made Patriot batteries, which had the ability to intercept missiles at the final site. Ground-based interception capabilities in the final section can be expanded by deploying American surface warships equipped with the Aegis system with SM-6 missiles off the coast of Israel. According to military experts, Israel already has "reliable interception capabilities in the middle section in the form of the Arrow 3 system, and the same US Navy ships equipped with SM-3 interceptor missiles and on combat duty in the Middle East."

Seven THAAD batteries of the US Army have repeatedly participated in short and long deployments in various regions of the world in the past. In addition to the one currently in Israel, two more batteries are currently involved "on the front line": one in Guam and one in South Korea.

Although the aforementioned interception of a medium-range ballistic missile by the Houthis was the first time that the US Army used the system to repel an "impending threat" in the direction of Israel, previously the United Arab Emirates used its THAAD batteries to shoot down a Houthi ballistic carrier aimed at an oil facility near the Al-Dhafra airbase, where American and French troops, as well as military personnel directly from the Emirates.

European Command In March 2019, the US Armed Forces (EUCOM) deployed the THAAD system in Israel for the first time as part of an exercise. The purpose of this step was "to work out joint actions with the Israel Defense Forces and check the possibility of rapid deployment of systems in various parts of the world." Even then it was pointed out that in Israel, American missile defense systems, if necessary, should become an addition to the four echelons of the air defense of the Jewish state.

THAAD is characterized by American military experts as one of the most powerful anti-missile weapons of the United States, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, as well as other air targets at a range of 150 to 200 km and having "an almost perfect percentage of successful tests."