Satellite imagery indicates that an RTX Corp. AN/TPY-2 radar and associated gear, utilized by US THAAD missile defense setups, was obliterated at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan during the initial phase of the conflict, as reported by CNN, referencing commercial satellite images.
The obliteration of the apparatus was subsequently verified by a US official.
Information compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank reveals two documented Iranian assaults in Jordan: one on Feb. 28 and another on March 3.
Both incidents were claimed to have been thwarted.
“If successful, an Iranian strike on a THAAD radar would mark one of Iran’s most successful attacks so far,” said Ryan Brobst, deputy director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
However, he claimed that “the US military and its partners have other radars that can continue to provide air and missile defense coverage, mitigating the loss of any single radar.”
US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, batteries are designed to eliminate ballistic missiles near the boundary of the atmosphere, allowing them to tackle more challenging targets than shorter-range Patriot systems.
With this AN/TPY-2 radar disabled, responsibilities for missile interception will shift to the Patriot setups, where PAC-3 missiles are already limited in availability.
The United States possesses eight THAAD systems worldwide, including deployments in South Korea and Guam.
Each battery is valued at approximately $1 billion, with the radar accounting for about $300 million of that amount, based on data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A THAAD battery includes 90 soldiers, six truck-mounted launchers with forty-eight interceptors — eight per launcher — one TPY-2 radar, plus a tactical fire control and communication component.
Each interceptor missile, produced by Lockheed Martin Corp., is priced at around $13 million.