Army Creates New Units To Use Iron Dome

Despite the US Army’s deep ambivalence about Iron Dome, which Congress compelled it to buy, the Army has officially created the new units to operate the Israeli-made anti-rocket system.

One battery currently operates Theater High-Altitude Air Defense — THAAD — which as its name implies is designed to shoot down high-flying, long-range missiles and aircraft. By contrast, Iron Dome is best known for its success against short-range, unguided rockets, although it has some capability against cruise missiles. The THAAD battery will have to be reequipped, reorganized and retrained. The second Iron Dome battery looks like it’ll be created from scratch, in part by transferring personnel now assigned to the Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Sill, OKla.

Both Iron Dome batteries will be based at Fort Bliss.