President Trump and the truth behind the "Iron Dome"

In reply to a post by Michael Vineyard where he cited the Israeli news channel -N12 he posted -

"President Trump claims Iron Dome is US technology, says Netanyahu should stop taking credit for it." 

As a Hasbarnik, educator and historian I review facts and I replied:

As an educator and historian I look at documented facts. 

While President Trump’s statements emphasize the significant financial and industrial role of the United States, his claim that the technology is "entirely American" is a simplification that overlooks the system's actual origins.

The development of the Iron Dome was prompted after a series of thousands of explosive shrapnel laden deadly rocket attacks on Israeli civilians -Jews and Arabs alike-  by the Iranian Proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas from 2000-2006. The "Iron Dome" system is the world's most advanced short-range missile interception system. 

The Iron Dome was conceived, designed, and first built in an ALL ISRAELI project which began in 2007, under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Daniel Gold, by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). 

Initially in the mid-2000s, U.S. defense officials actually discouraged Israel from building it and were skeptical of the project, with some reportedly labeling it "doomed to fail" because it was considered technically impossible to hit short-range, primitive rockets with a missile as well as 155 mm artillery shells with a range of up to 70 kilometers. 

Consequently, the initial R&D and the deployment of the first two batteries were funded solely by Israel.

According to its ISRAELI manufacturer, it was proven in 11 months of War Iron Dome to be able to successfully operate day and night, under adverse weather conditions, and to respond to multiple threats simultaneously.

The Iron Dome is part of a multi-tiered missile defense system that Israel is continuing to develop since 2016 to protect the country from the use of the Iranian funded and supplied proxies Hamas and Hezbollah whose attacks on Israeli CIVILIANS ranged from mortars to ICBMs. This multi-tiered missile defense system includes the Arrow 2, Arrow 3, Iron Beam, Barak 8 and David's Sling.

Each "Iron Dome" battery costs about $50 million and the interceptor missiles used are called in Hebrew the "Tamir" (a Hebrew acronym for Til Meyaret or 'interceptor missile') and they cost around $40,000 each. The the interceptor missile uses a proximity fuze mechanism to detonate and destroy incoming rockets.

Iron Dome has three central components:

1) Detection & Tracking Radar: the radar system is built by Elta, an Israeli defense company and subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, and by the IDF.

2) Battle Management & Weapon Control (BMC): the control center is built for Rafael by mPrest 

3) Missile Firing Unit: the unit launches the Tamir interceptor missile, equipped with electro-optic sensors and several steering fins for high maneuverability. The missile is built by Rafael. A typical Iron Dome battery has 3–4 launchers (20 missiles per launcher). 

The Iron Dome (Hebrew: kippat barzel) radar developed by Elta compliments a "specialized rapid data system" to correct the interceptors in mid flight to their target. 

The system's radar is referred to as EL/M-2084. It detects the rocket's launch and tracks its trajectory. The BMC calculates the impact point according to the reported data, and uses this information to determine whether the target constitutes a threat to a designated area. Only when that threat is determined, is an interceptor missile fired to destroy the incoming rocket before it reaches the predicted impact area.

The Iron Dome was declared operational and initially deployed on 27 March 2011 near Beersheba and the system successfully intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza for the first time on April 7th 2011.

Only when the system proved it worked did the U.S. role became critical starting in 2011 and since then, the U.S. has provided over $3 billion dollars to the program. 

This monetary aid package allowed Israel to maintain a massive inventory of interceptor missiles (which cost roughly $40,000 to $50,000 each) to intercept more that 40,000 explosive laden missiles fired by the Iranian proxies of Hamas and Hezbollah at Israeli civilian targets alone since October 7th, 2023!

It should be noted that these funds are within the US-Israel "Joint Military" assistance program -"the US AID package" and every dollar of the U.S. Aid package is accounted for, creating a defensive shield and supporting the the U.S. economy and the U.S. defense industry.

In exchange for this funding, a "co-production" agreement since July 2014, moved about 55–75% of component manufacturing (including parts for the Tamir interceptors) to the United States in states like Arkansas and Arizona via partners like Raytheon thereby supporting some 70,000 local US employees.

Furthermore, the U.S. Marine Corps and other partner forces now use this Israeli-designed technology for their own protection.

Despite the U.S. manufacturing the hardware, the "brain" of the system (the command-and-control software) remains Israeli-owned.

While the U.S. and Israel are now deeply integrated partners in missile defense, Trump’s claim of exclusive "American technology" contradicts the established development history of the system.

The President’s recent remarks at Davos come at a time of friction regarding defense technology.  Just days before his speech, the Israeli Defense Ministry reportedly halted a planned U.S. takeover of mPrest, the company that developed the Iron Dome’s core command-and-control software, citing concerns over losing domestic control of classified technology.

In Conclusion

The Iron Dome's "DNA" is Israeli, but its "lungs"—the funding and mass production—are American. It is a partnership where Israeli innovation meets American scale to stop war crimes. To claim it is exclusively one or the other ignores the documented history of this life-saving system.