SAEDNEWS: One of America’s most advanced anti-missile systems faced an egregiously tough test, fending off Iranian missiles of diverse types and unpredictable capabilities fired during Iran’s recent retaliation for Tel Aviv’s unprovoked war, reports say.
Accoeding to Saednews, These remarks were made by defense news outlets and independent analysts as quoted by many Western media outlets, including Newsweek magazine.
The 12-day imposed war that began on June 13 saw the Islamic Republic respond with a whopping number of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic variants, towards strategic nuclear, military, and industrial targets across the occupied Palestinian territories.
The retaliation missile strikes as part of True Promise III targeted the heart of Tel Aviv, which is the regime's economic hub; Haifa, the most important deep-water port, and Be'er Sheva, the modern development and technology epicenter.
According to analysts, the US used between 15 percent to 20 percent of its global THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system's inventory, with the cost of interceptors thrown at incoming Iranian projectiles exceeding $800 million.
Observers note that a breakdown pointing to each interceptor costing $12–15 million reflects the sheer number and high intensity of missiles launched by Iran.
They also cite arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, making no more than 50 to 60 interceptors each year, to highlight how the THAAD arsenal was depleted.
The sizeable pressure on Washington to protect its key regional ally had it deploy no less than two of its seven-strong global THAAD batteries during the support operations.
The experts also pointed out how THAAD – designed to deflect high-altitude ballistic missiles – was outmatched by the Islamic Republic's low-altitude projectiles and hypersonic ballistic missiles such as Fattah-1.
The missile is capable of high maneuverability, which tasks the American missile platform with its unpredictable trajectory.
THAAD had similarly fallen short in May, when Yemen's Armed Forces shot one of their Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missiles towards the occupied territories.
The experts also highlighted the Islamic Republic's deployment of the strategy of firing mass salvos at the American missile system, which also had the Patriot platform helping it out, and Israeli missile systems.
They cited a June 18 barrage over Tel Aviv, which overly engaged THAAD with confronting decoys and non-critical targets.
This, they noted, created an asymmetric situation for the missile platform that could not cope with the overwhelming incoming fire.
