6 August 2020: Raytheon and Iron Dome Weapon System have signed another partnership called the Raytheon RAFAEL Area Protection Systems for the production of a new facility to produce both the Iron Dome Weapon System, which consists of the Tamir interceptor and launcher, and the SkyHunter missile, a US 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. The site location will be finalised by the end of the year.
“This will be the first Iron Dome all-up-round facility outside of Israel, and it will help the US Department of Defence and allies across the globe obtain the system for defence of their service members and critical infrastructure,” said Raytheon Missiles & defence Systems’ Sam Deneke, vice president of Land Warfare & Air defence business execution.
“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 defence of RAFAEL Advanced defence Systems. “We have long partnered on US production of Iron Dome and are pleased to increase manufacturing and bring SkyHunter to the US.”
Raytheon Missiles & defence and RAFAEL have teamed for over a decade on Iron Dome which is also the world’s most-used system with more than 2,500 operational intercepts and a success rate exceeding 90 per cent.
