THAAD

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is a US anti-Ballistic missile system developed by Lockheed Martin and fielded by the US Army. Designed to intercept ballistic missiles in their terminal phase at high altitude, THAAD uses a hit-to-kill kinetic warhead rather than an explosive. A single interceptor round costs approximately $12 million, compared to $1,000-$2,000 for Ukrainian counter-drone alternatives .

The Iran-Israel-US conflict of 2026 placed THAAD at the centre of allied air defence. As Iran fired successive waves of ballistic missiles at Gulf States and Israel, THAAD batteries formed the top tier of layered defences alongside the Patriot missile system and Arrow-3. The scale of attrition was stark: Zelenskyy reported 800 US-made interceptors consumed in just three days of the Iran war, more than Ukraine received across an entire winter , and by early April the Payne Institute estimated roughly a third of the US THAAD stockpile had been consumed against annual production capacity of only about 100 interceptors, bearing out RUSI's early-March warning that stocks could run out within a month . The Pentagon responded by diverting $750 million from NATO programmes to restock depleted inventories.

The conflict also exposed limits: Israeli batteries failed to stop ballistic missiles that struck near Dimona, with the IDF acknowledging the system "operated but did not intercept" . Each interceptor consumed in the Gulf is one fewer available for Ukraine, creating a direct trade-off at the heart of US security commitments.