Newly returned President Donald Trump floated the idea of a US “Iron Dome” missile defense system at his Commander-in-Chief’s inaugural ball last night.
President Trump declared, “We will once again build the most powerful military the world has ever seen.” “We’re building an iron dome that’s all American-made. We’re going to have a nice iron dome. We’re going to use the iron dome to protect us.”
“I’m directing the military to begin construction of a giant Iron Dome missile defense shield that will be built entirely in the United States,” President Trump said at a rally in Phoenix last month, calling for dome construction elsewhere. Ta.
Although President Trump has not provided details, America’s Iron Dome is likely modeled on Israel’s operational “Iron Dome” missile defense system, which uses missiles to intercept and eliminate incoming projectile threats. It will become a thing. Remarkably, U.S. taxpayers are already contributing significantly to the Israeli project, with approximately $3 billion spent on its production, equipment, and maintenance since 2011.
But Israel’s Iron Dome requires missiles to be able to strike projectiles anywhere in Israeli airspace, making it difficult to maintain and potentially overwhelmed by a concentrated attack. And it’s very expensive, with a single Iron Dome missile costing about $50,000 to manufacture.
Given the size of the United States, applying the same project to the U.S. border would be a very expensive endeavor, even if it were possible. And given the low risk of a substantial airstrike against the United States, it would be futile.
Furthermore, Iron Dome is not adequately equipped to counter long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the weapons most likely to be used in air attacks.
“The most likely nuclear threat to the United States would be long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles that could fly through the atmosphere at incredible speeds and re-enter to attack U.S. targets,” said a senior U.S. official. says researcher William Hartung. “The Iron Dome system used by Israel has no ability to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles, and efforts to build it have cost tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the past 40 years. “Years could have been spent” only to produce a system that cannot pass any real-world test. ”
“The Iron Dome crash program is great for weapons contractors, but it does nothing to improve our defense capabilities,” Hartung said.
The U.S. military budget already stands at about $850 billion, a significant increase from $700 billion just three years ago. It’s time to reconsider whether projects with massive military power like Iron Dome are in our interests.
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