A U.S.-made-and-supplied Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense battery was reportedly used on Friday morning against a ballistic missile fired by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen at Israel.

The THAAD battery arrived in Israel in October. The move was hailed at the time as a step forward in U.S.-Israeli military cooperation, even in the context of difficult relations between the governments of U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Reuters reported:

An advanced U.S. military anti-missile system was used in Israel to try to intercept a projectile for the first time since President Joe Biden placed the system in Israel in October, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, was used to try to intercept a projectile from Yemen sometime during the last 24 hours, and an analysis would determine its success, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

…

In October, Biden placed the THAAD system, built by Lockheed Martin , in Israel along with about 100 U.S. soldiers to help defend the country. THAAD is a critical part of the U.S. military’s layered air defense systems and added to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defenses.

However, critics also noted that increasingly direct U.S. involvement Israel’s defense could be exploited by an unfriendly administration, as Biden attempted to do when he withheld certain munitions from Israel in protest at Israel’s decision to enter the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

The move also placed U.S. soldiers at risk in the war zone, adding to the possibility of further U.S. involvement.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.