Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, praised a new $1.25 billion contract for the Raytheon-Rafael partnership, called R2S, to supply Tamir missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome via a facility in Camden, Ark.
Huckabee Sanders stated on a tour of the newly opened facility that her father, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, “spent the better part of the summer working from a bunker.”
“Not only do my own parents live under the protection of the Iron Dome,” she said. “So do 700,000 other Americans.”
According to RTX, whose suite of businesses includes the U.S. defense company Raytheon, the new “direct commercial sales contract includes missiles, missile kits and test equipment.”
Jonathan Casey, CEO of the partnership, called the contract “a major milestone,” adding that “the new Camden site is the first all-up-round production facility in the United States to manufacture Tamir and SkyHunter missiles.”
Yoav Tourgeman, president and CEO of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, an Israeli company, stated that the facility opening “marks another meaningful step in strengthening the availability of proven air-defense capabilities for the United States and its partners.”
The new contract follows the companies’ $33 million investment in the new East Camden manufacturing site. The facility will assemble Tamir missiles, as well as the U.S. SkyHunter variant used in the Marine Corps’ medium-range intercept capability program.
The Arkansas governor noted that the French government told R2S “at the last minute” that it had “blacklisted” it from the Paris Air Show over the summer.
France targeting the company “for building weapons for Israel’s Iron Dome, a weapon that is used exclusively for defense purposes,” was essentially telling Israel that it has no right to protect itself, she said.
Huckabee Sanders called it a “point of pride” that Arkansas hosts the facility and that workers in the state can help build a capability that protects U.S. and Israeli interests.
“America’s partnership with Israel helps keep both countries safer, fuels the U.S. economy and creates American jobs,” AIPAC stated.
