US company Raytheon Technologies (NYSE:RTX) has announced that it has signed an agreement to form a joint venture with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. to establish an Iron Dome Weapon short range missile interception production facility in the US. The new partnership, called Raytheon Rafael Area Protection Systems will finalize a site for the plant before the end of 2020.
The plant will manufacture both Iron Dome, which consists of the Tamir interceptor and launcher, and the SkyHunter missile, a US version 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.
Rafael EVP air and missile defense Brig. Gen. (res.) Pini Yungman said, "We are excited about this new stage in our partnership with Raytheon and proud of our US production. We have long partnered on US production of Iron Dome and are pleased to increase manufacturing and bring SkyHunter to the US"
"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 defense of their service members and critical infrastructure," said Raytheon Missiles & Defense Systems' Sam Deneke, VP Land Warfare & Air Defense business execution.
Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Rafael have worked together for over a decade on Iron Dome, the world's most-used anti-missile defense system with more than 2,500 operational intercepts and a success rate exceeding 90%.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 3, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020