U.S. Chooses Unproved Interceptor Over Iron Dome

In a surprising decision, the U.S. Army announced the awarding of a multi-billion-dollar tender for a missile defense system to an unproved American product, rather than Israel’s highly successful Iron Dome, Globes reported on Sunday.

The winning system, developed by the U.S. company Dynetics in partnership with Raytheon Technologies, is still at least two years away from operational readiness, and will reportedly be much more expensive than the Iron Dome C-RAM multi-mission.

Given Iron Dome’s impressive record under years of actual combat conditions — thousands of interceptions with a hit rate close to 90% — it was thought to be a stronger candidate for the tender.

It appears that the Army chose its default position of preferring U.S.-produced equipment, even over what might be considered a superior product.