The announcement made by the Department of Defense's Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh came following Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel on April 13 and Oct. 1.
"This decision was made as part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months to support the defense of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias," Singh said. (Related: U.S. troops to be deployed to Israel as country braces for potential attack by Iran.)
When asked by the press regarding the sudden need to deploy the missile system in the region now, Singh pointed out that Iran's attack on Israel earlier this month was nearly double the size of the April attack. She also argued that the April 13 attack included mostly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and cruise missiles being launched at Israel rather than the larger ballistic missiles of the Oct. 1 attack.
"On April 13, we had more of our fighters in the air shooting down UAVs and cruise missiles, [but] our fighters are not going to engage these types of ballistic missiles," she said, adding that it was U.S. Navy destroyers that engaged Iran's ballistic missiles during the April attack and that the THAAD is intended to do the same, only from land.
Singh said if Iran chooses to strike again with ballistic missiles, a THAAD would be more capable of defending Israel aerially. "It can help shoot those down and protect innocent civilians there, including Americans in Israel," she noted.
In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that the administration of President Joe Biden is putting American troops' lives at risk.
"The U.S. has been delivering record amounts of arms to Israel. It is now also putting the lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate U.S. missile systems in Israel," Araghchi said. "While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests."
This is not the first time that the United States sent THAAD to the Middle East. Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said it was also deployed to Israel in 2019 for an exercise. However, the deployment of additional U.S. troops to Israel is notable amid the heightened tensions between Israel and Iran. Analysts say it is rare for the U.S. to deploy troops inside Israel.
THAAD is considered a complementary system to the Patriot missile defense system but can defend a wider amount of territory. It can strike targets in the ranges of 150 to 200 kilometers. Seven THAAD batteries have six launchers each mounted on trucks, which would need to hold 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment. It also requires 95 soldiers to run it.
THAAD deployment is a gamble, analyst warns
For political analysts, the recent decision to deploy the THAAD missile system as well as less than 100 personnel is a gamble as it widely declares political and military backing of the Biden administration to Israel, despite its claims of wanting to uphold a permanent ceasefire.
They added that this commitment of sending American troops on the ground also poses risks. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth acknowledged that the Army's air defense forces are "the most stressed" of any other force in the service given the high demand for their systems.
"Missile defense buys you time, missile defense buys you the flexibility to end the threat by other means," Thomas Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News.
"If we're going to commit that kind of thing, we need to make sure that it is used well and that we communicate to the Iranians that they need to stop this nonsense," Karako added. "But it's a gamble."
IsraelCollapse.com contains more stories related to recent happenings in Israel and the open war it is waging on Middle Eastern nations.
Watch the video below that talks about the DOD's recent announcement of sending troops to man the THAAD missile system to Jerusalem.
This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.
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