How Effective is THAAD in Defending Israel Against Iranian Missile Strikes?

<p >Following Israeli attacks on Iran in the early hours of June 13, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps within 24 hours launched a large retaliatory ballistic missile barrage targeting key air defence sites, airbases, defence ministry buildings in the capital Tel Aviv, the HaKiyra defence complex, and other military sites. Subsequent drone strikes on Israeli targets have since been reported. Anonymous U.S. officials have informed the Washington Post that U.S. Army<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/combat-losses-wont-give-ukraine-patriot-free" target="_blank"> Patriot missile systems</a> and Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) systems were used to support effort to shoot down incoming missiles. Unconfirmed reports indicate that a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke Class destroyer in the eastern Mediterranean Sea also participated in <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/usnavy-replenish-destroyer-missile-stocks" target="_blank">air defence efforts</a>, and that the U.S. Armed Forces have diverted additional forces to the region to support the ongoing Israeli war effort. A wide range of footage from Israel has been released confirming success of Iranian missile strikes, and calling into question the scale of the attack. The Israel Defence Forces have exercised strict control on media publishing assessments of the damage. </p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/14/article_684d15b6506839_29999534.jpeg" title="Destruction in Israel at Site of Iranian Missile Strike"></p><p >THAAD systems were first reported to have been deployed to Israel on October 13, after both Iran and Yemen’s demonstrated the ability to launch long range <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/yemen-strike-israeli-defences-fail" >missile strikes</a> against <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/strike-completely-destroys-f35-base" >sensitive military targets</a> across the country. The system is  optimised for intercepting such missiles in their terminal high altitude phases. The <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israel-air-defence-shortages-iranian-hezbollah" >depletion</a> of Israel’s own missile defences has made support from the system particularly important, although the U.S. Army’s arsenal of the systems is also <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/thaad-worldwide-us-army-respond" >very limited</a>. The Army first employed the THAAD system in combat two months later on December 26, although it reportedly <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/us-army-thaad-fail-first-combat-test-yemeni-missiles" >failed to shoot down</a> a Yemeni missile that was heading towards Israel at the time. This brought the system’s usefulness against much larger scale attacks using Iran’s significantly more sophisticated ballistic missile arsenal into serous question. Missile strikes from Yemen have on multiple occasions proven <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/yemen-strike-israeli-defences-fail" >capable of evading</a> Israel’s multi-layered air defence network, with Israeli reports that multiple interceptors were fired at a missile in the early hours of September 15, but failed to stop it, being one of multiple examples. This has raised questions regarding the country’s vulnerability to sustained large scale Iranian strikes. </p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/14/article_684d17de0bfba2_27021858.jpeg" title="Surface-to-Air Missile Battery From THAAD System"></p><p >The THAAD system suffers from a number of constraints relative to many of the competing systems fielded elsewhere in the world, such as the <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russia-first-regiment-s500-long-range-air-defence" target="_blank">Russian S-500</a>. A leading limitation is that it deploys only a single class of surface-to-air missile, and is thus incapable of providing a multi-layered defence and engaging different kinds of target with optimal munitions. Interceptors launched by the THAAD system carry no warheads, and are restricted to engaging targets at maximum ranges of approximately 200 kilometres, meaning a single system can cover just 11 percent the area of an S-500. Although this is not a significant issue when deployed to defend Israeli territory or due to the country’s small size, or on Guam, it prevents the system from being relied on for wider area defence to protect U.S. forces beyond the country. The THAAD system’s limitations were expected to be heavily compensated for by deploying it as part of a network with other systems such as the David’s Sling, Barak 8, and the AEGIS system on nearby American warships. The success of recent Iranian strikes has nevertheless drawn the effectiveness of this particularly dense multi-layered network into question. </p>