US begins producing Iron Dome interceptors in Arkansas

On October 7th, at a facility in northeast Arkansas, a milestone in Iron Dome history took place: delivery of the first Tamir interceptor manufactured and assembled entirely on American soil. Not individual components, not parts,a complete missile from start to finish, produced by R2S, the joint venture between Israel's Rafael and America's Raytheon.

The interceptor was handed over to Israel's Homa Directorate at the Defense Ministry in a ceremony attended by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Homa Director Moshe Patel, senior officials from the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and executives from both companies. Until now, even when the US funded a large portion of Tamir interceptors, final assembly always took place in Israel. For the first time, Israel has a second, fully independent production source outside its borders.

In an era when interceptor stockpiles drain rapidly during prolonged conflicts, the ability to manufacture Tamirs simultaneously in two countries becomes critical. The East Camden plant, which opened in November 2025 with a $63 million investment, is expected to create dozens of local jobs and has already secured a massive $1.25 billion contract to supply interceptors, kits and testing equipment to Israel.

The facility is not intended solely for Israel's Iron Dome. It will also produce SkyHunter, the American version of the Tamir, designed for the US Marine Corps' MRIC program. In other words, the same Israeli technology protecting Israel's skies will soon defend American forces as well.

The Tamir, which entered service in 2011, is the heart of the Iron Dome system. It measures roughly three meters in length, 160 millimeters in diameter, and weighs approximately 90 kilograms. It combines mid-flight guidance with a radar seeker and a fragmentation warhead with proximity fuse. A typical battery includes three to four launchers with up to 20 interceptors each, capable of intercepting threats from a range of approximately 4 to 70 kilometers, rockets, mortars, UAVs and cruise missiles.

Air defense system by Rafael (Photo: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems)

Iron Dome has already recorded more than 10,000 successful operational intercepts. It forms the lower layer in Israel's multi-tiered defense array, beneath David's Sling and Arrow, and absorbs the majority of short-range, high-frequency threats.

Moshe Patel, head of the Homa Directorate, emphasized at the ceremony that the new production line supports efforts to accelerate manufacturing of all Israeli defense systems, and noted that American funding ultimately returns to US industry as well.

Shlomo Tavov, Rafael vice president and head of the Air and Missile Defense Division, said: "Fifteen years ago people said it was impossible to develop Iron Dome. Today, for the first time, Tamir is being produced outside Israel,here in Camden. We are proud to have turned this facility into a working production line."

The first "Made in USA" Tamir is far more than a single missile. It symbolizes the deepening of defense cooperation between the two countries, the expansion of joint production capacity, and the fact that Israel is no longer dependent on a single plant for its most widely used interceptor. As Iron Dome continues to save lives, it now has "industrial backup" across the ocean.