The recent conflict with Iran proved what decades of investment and cooperation had long promised: missile defense works. Israel’s layered architecture—Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow, supported by U.S. capabilities including SM-3,  and THAAD—intercepted most Iranian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. U.S. forces played a direct operational role, reinforcing Israel’s defenses during critical phases of the conflict. The lesson is not simply that the technology performed. It is that the partnership behind the technology performed—and that the model it represents deserves to be extended across the region and beyond. 

I had the privilege throughout my career of helping advance this cooperation, working to strengthen integration between U.S. and allied systems, expand sensor architectures, and reinforce the political and technical foundations that make such collaboration possible. I have watched this partnership mature from a bilateral arrangement into something approaching a genuine operational alliance. What follows is my assessment of where it stands, where it falls short, and what it should become. 

A Foundation Built Over Decades 

The U.S.–Israel defense relationship has always been a two-way enterprise. Israeli forces gained knowledge from the U.S. military’s experience in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam—adapting American tactics to the specific demands of fighting Soviet-equipped Arab militaries. In return, Israel’s hard-won experience in the wars of 1948 through 1982 informed American thinking about combined arms warfare and attrition against a sophisticated adversary. When both militaries later confronted insurgency and terrorism—Israel in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank; the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan—that mutual learning continued. 

Missile defense became the defining chapter of this cooperation. As I have written elsewhere, the catalyst was the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraqi Scud attacks exposed the catastrophic vulnerability of civilian populations to ballistic missile threats. In the decades that followed, the United States and Israel worked together to build a layered defense architecture specifically designed to counter Iran’s expanding missile and drone arsenal. The result—tested under fire in recent years—is the most operationally validated missile defense system in history. 

The Sustainability Challenge 

Success has revealed a new problem. Iran and its proxies have adapted. Having........

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