Israel and UAE forge major defense cooperation amid Iran war - report
Jerusalem deployed the Iron Beam laser, a Spectro drone detection system, and an Iron Dome to Abu Dhabi as Iran fired 2,500 projectiles at the gulf state, according to a Financial Times report
During the recent Iran war, Israel quietly deployed advanced weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates to help the Gulf state counter a sustained Iranian missile and drone offensive, according to a Financial Times (FT) report. The package included a version of its Iron Beam laser defense system and a lightweight drone-detection platform called Spectro.
Israel's Spectro surveillance system was rushed to the UAE to help detect incoming drones, including Iranian Shahed drones, from as far as 20 kilometers away, according to two people familiar with the matter cited by the FT.
Jerusalem also deployed a version of its Iron Beam laser system, which vaporizes short-range rockets and drones and had previously been used by Israel earlier this year against Hezbollah projectiles from Lebanon. Both deployments had not previously been reported.
Israel also sent its Iron Dome air defense system to the UAE, first reported by Axios, along with "several dozen" Israeli military personnel to operate it. According to the report, additional weapons systems and personnel were also deployed. "It's not a small number of boots on the ground," one person told the FT.
Iran fired more than 500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 drones at the UAE during the conflict, with the vast majority intercepted as the Gulf state deployed multiple air defense systems, including Israeli-made equipment. Israel also shared significant real-time intelligence on short-range missile launch preparations in western Iran aimed at the UAE.
To keep pace with the tempo of the war, the Israeli military deployed systems that were either in the prototype stage or not yet fully integrated into Israeli radar systems. "We took it off the bench and gave it to the Emiratis," one person familiar with the matter told the FT.
The deployments represent one of the first major defense cooperation efforts between the two states, which did not establish formal diplomatic relations until the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by US President Donald Trump. Israel had previously sold the UAE its Barak and Spyder air defense systems, and the two countries have developed increasingly close economic and military ties since normalization.
A regional official described the deployment as a display of "the value of being Israel's friend." Elbit Systems, which manufactures Spectro; Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the primary developer of Iron Beam; the Israeli Ministry of Defense; and the UAE all declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment, according to the report.
The war that followed the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran in February marked the first major sustained test of the Israel-UAE alliance. The UAE was one of Iran's primary targets partly because of its close embrace of the Abraham Accords, according to a Western official cited by the FT.
Abu Dhabi has since made clear it intends to deepen its ties with both the US and Israel while criticizing Arab and Muslim institutions for what it views as an inadequate response to Iran's aggression.