Defence Online

Raytheon and RAFAEL establish Iron Dome Weapon System production facility

Homeland August 5, 2020

Raytheon Missiles & Defense and RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, an Israeli-based defence technology company, have signed a joint venture to establish an Iron Dome Weapon System production facility in the United States.

The new partnership, called Raytheon RAFAEL Area Protection Systems, anticipates finalising a site location for the Iron Dome Weapon System production facility before the end of the year.

Raytheon Missiles & Defense Systems’ Sam Deneke, Vice President of Land Warfare & Air Defense business execution, said: “This will be the first Iron Dome all-up-round facility outside of Israel, and it will help the US Department of Defense and allies across the globe obtain the system for defence of their service members and critical infrastructure.”

The new facility will produce both the Iron Dome Weapon System, which consists of the Tamir interceptor and launcher, and the SkyHunter missile, a U.S. derivative of Tamir. Both Tamir and SkyHunter intercept incoming cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems and short-range targets such as rockets, artillery, mortars and other aerial threats.

“We are excited about this new stage in our partnership with Raytheon and proud of our US production,” said Brig. Gen. (res.) Pini Yungman, Executive Vice President for Air and Missile Defense of RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems. “We have long partnered on U.S. production of Iron Dome and are pleased to increase manufacturing and bring SkyHunter to the US.”

image courtesy of Raytheon

If you would like to join our community and read more articles like this then please click here.

Post written by: Matt Brown