The US is now buying this air defense weapon from Israel

When we talk about American arms deals, usually the United States is the seller, and almost everyone else is the buyer (if they know what's good for them). But this time, Israel has the technology that everyone in the air defense arena should aspire to, especially in terms of protecting people from missile attacks.

The Israelis have had to perfect their surface-to-air missile tech, especially when it comes to intercepting missiles and rockets while in mid-flight. The Jewish state has been taking random rocket, mortar, and missile attacks from anti-Israel terrorist organizations like Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip to Israel's south and Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, to Israel's north. Currently, the system is a short-range interceptor system, but its effectiveness is its primary selling point.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the Iron Dome's high rate of success can be repeated almost anywhere, given that the system is a mobile, all-weather system. In 2011, before its widespread deployment, the Iron Dome successfully intercepted four of the five rockets fired by Palestinian militants at the city of Beersheba. The next year, when IDF troops invaded the Gaza Strip, Hamas Qassam rockets were successfully intercepted 75-90 percent of the time, with some 300 rockets being fired at Israel.

This kind of success rate far outpaces the U.S. Patriot missile batteries, which is around 50 percent most of the time but can be as high as 75 to 85 percent. Given this success and the dire need for short-range anti-missile batteries in NATO-allied Europe, the 7 million deal is an easy win for both parties. Israel's Iron Dome beat out similar weapons from Boeing and General Dynamics Land Systems' Stryker during short-range air defense operation demonstrations at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense System intercepts an incoming projectile during 2012's Operation Pillar of Defense.

(Photo by Emanuel Yellin)

The United States currently used its THAAD missile defense system to protect Europe from short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats but does not have short-range surface-to-air defense systems in place as of now. The best part about the Iron Dome deal for the United States is the all-weather mobility the system offers as well as the ability of the Iron Dome's Tamir missiles to fire at multiple targets simultaneously, at different ranges.