WIKI
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase (descent or reentry). The THAAD interceptor carries no warhead, instead relying on its kinetic energy of impact to destroy the incoming missile. THAAD was developed after the experience of Iraq’s Scud missile attacks during the Gulf War in 1991.
On 17 January 2022, THAAD made its first operational interception of an incoming hostile medium-range ballistic missile in the UAE.
A THAAD battery consists of at least six launcher vehicles, each equipped with eight missiles, with two mobile tactical operations centers (TOCs) and the AN/TPY-2 ground-based radar (GBR).
The U.S. Army plans to field at least six THAAD batteries, at a purchase cost of US$800 million per battery.
The THAAD Radar is an X-Band active electronically scanned array Radar developed and built by Raytheon at its Andover, Massachusetts Integrated Air Defense Facility.
The THAAD radar can interoperate with Aegis and Patriot systems, in a 3-layer antimissile defense.
On October 13, 2024, President Biden directed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to authorize the deployment of a THAAD battery to Israel to “help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_High_Altitude_Area_Defense
A question about THAAD: Does THAAD rely on single kinetic impactor missiles - the “shoot a bullet at a bullet” approach, or does it use a “shotgun” approach — essentially creating a small “cloud” of objects (say, tungsten balls) that the incoming missile runs into — the impacts disabling the incoming missile due to the velocity of the incoming missile itself?
And, can THAAD intercept the attacking missile before it deploys the individual submunitions? If not, dealing with 36 independent submunitions at the same time seems quite difficult.