UAE Bought THAAD

United Arab Emirates and the U.S. signed an agreement to purchase the THAAD system anti ballistic. UAE will be the first importer of the weapons.


Shells with a length of just over 6 m and weighing 900 kg, are able to reach a height of 150 km, and thus leave the Earth's atmosphere. Such a large ceiling, with small dimensions, has been achieved thanks to the light head, a direct target of destructive blow. Missiles fired from the launcher vehicles are based on modernized, heavy vehicles Oshkosh M1075.

According to information disclosed yesterday, an agreement was signed on December 25th, finalizing the previous announcement. The agreement assumes that at the request of the U.S. Army, Lockheed Martin will provide 2 full THAAD batteries, 6 launchers each, giving a total of 96 missiles. The battery also includes a radar scan AN/TPY-2 phase range up to 1000 km, the position of command, control and communications and auxiliary systems.

The contract value amounts to 3.48 billion USD. It's a big amount if you compare it with the order on one battery for U.S. Army at the beginning of this year. The American army will pay for it less than $ 700 million . But we must remember that for a dollar bill also envisages the creation of facilities for the whole system and also relates antybalistycznego service and training package.

Finally, the U.S. importer shall make available data from the radar station ships, equipped with the Aegis system, deployed in the Gulf region, which significantly increase the chance for rapid detection of ballistic missiles.

THAAD can be used to combat missiles of short and medium range, mostly in the last phase of their flight. Although this system is much more efficient to set the Patriot, the ceiling and reach predispose a system to defend urban areas or groupings of troops, rather than large areas. In the case of the UAE, the country's relatively small, this restriction is not important. THAAD batteries will be thanks to the entire state system of defense against potential threats from Iran's ballistic missiles.