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President Donald Trump’s executive order, entitled “The iron dome for America“Ask to renew our antimisile defense capabilities, which the president label” the most catastrophic threat facing the United States. ”
However, there are significant challenges to overcome if we want to deploy something similar to Israel’s acclaimed air defense network Because the threat to the United States is quite different.
Today, we face real threats, such as the intercontinental nuclear -tipped ballistic missiles (ICBM) launched from countries such as China and Russia, which could jeopardize the entire United States. During the Cold War (1948-1991) with the Soviet Union, we approach that threat to our doctrine of “Destruction of Mutual Insured”. If Moscow attacked us with long -range nuclear missiles, we would retaliate with an overwhelming number of similar weapons that result in the annihilation of both nations. That doctrine worked because fear increased on both sides.
President Donald Trump’s executive order requires renewing our antimile defense capacities. (Reuters)
Our challenge today is more complicated than during the Cold War because we face multiple enemies that have a wide variety of threats in the air. Specifically, the adversaries of the nation state as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran Everyone has or are developing long -range nuclear systems that put the US at risk. In addition, there are a lot of terrorist groups with access to sophisticated technologies such as drones and rockets that threaten our interests abroad and perhaps our homeland .
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In addition, many of these weapons are guided by space -based systems, which make them more precise and come in a variety of difficult packages to defend: hypersonic missiles that are difficult to track, ballistic missiles with multiple eyelets, drones of many Sizes and capabilities, cruise missiles thrown by the sea and more.
Unfortunately, the ability of the United States to defend the homeland of such a range of aerial threats is frankly limited, which explains Trump’s order to immediately address the problem.
I put that task in perspective considering the Israeli air defense model.
Trump calls us Build something similar to Israel’s “iron dome” to defend the United States against a large number of threats. Understandably, his desire is to protect the United States from attacks such as those launched in Israel in 2024, so practically all projectiles were demolished before reaching the Jewish state.
The three -parts air defense network of Israel includes the Iron Dome, which is designed to stop the short -range rockets and the artillery shells thrown from the Gaza strip.
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The second level is David’s sling, which intends to intercept ballistic and cruise missiles, such as those possessed by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The third level is known as Arrow 3, which intercepts missiles that fly outside the atmosphere of the Earth, as long -range missiles launched by hutis militants in Yemen or those who would go used to attack Israel in 2024.
Although the three -level network of Israel worked well in 2024, it is not necessarily the appropriate model for the United States. There are three key differences.
First, the United States is different from Israel, who built its network to defend itself mainly drones, artillery and cruise missiles. launched from a neighboring country. It is unlikely that the United States will be attacked by Canada or Mexico. Rather, any air attack will probably involve ICBMs or missiles/drones thrown from ships or submarines outside our coasts.
Second, Israel is a very small country, approximately 8,630 square miles or the size of New Jersey. The United States is 440 times the size of Israel with population centers and sensitive sites distributed over this vast country. Defending all our landscape of all aerial threats would be incredibly expensive, especially if it was made on the scale observed in Israel.
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Third, the United States has a variety of air defense systems in its inventory, which are not in a network such as those seen in Israel. Yes, we have an anti-icbm system in Alaska and California with 44 missiles. However, that system focuses mainly on the threat raised by North Korea. Our other systems are for defenses of fixed sites deployed mainly outside the United States.
These mobile systems include the AEGIS ballistic missile system, which is based on the sea and is designed to intercept ballistic missiles during the middle of the course or the terminal phases of the flight. We film a variety of specific systems of the site, such as the MIM-104 Patriot, capable of involving ballistic and cruise missiles.
The defense of the high -altitude area (Thaad) intercepts ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of the flight. The National Surface-Air Missile System (NASAMS) is a medium-range air defense, which is part of the air defense system of the National Capital of the United States since 2005.
There are also other tactical platforms such as the Avenger Air Defense System, FIM-92 Stinger and Maniouver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD).
Like other nations, the United States is working in directed energy weapons (lasers) and other counters to low-price anti-systems against drones and rockets as well.
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The task for the Pentagon To satisfy Trump’s executive order to deploy a “next -generation antimile defense shield” is to find the correct combination of air defense platforms, the correct doctrine and an effective defense strategy. This effort begins by evaluating the threat against very specific domestic sites and prioritizing the placement of our abilities and accepting the risk in other places.
We must also develop something similar to the doctrine of the Cold War of destruction safely, so that our enemies with nuclear weapons understand the risk for them if they contemplate the launch of weapons against us.
Finally, the Air Defense Strategy outlined in the White House Information She Sensors and interceptors based on space. At that time, there was enough out of the Soviets and led to agreements that mitigated the nuclear threat, such as the treaty of the nuclear forces of intermediate range and strategic conversations of weapons reduction.
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In fact, Reagan Star Wars programLike Trump’s “Iron Dome” proposal, he intended to protect the United States from aerial threats. At that time, the Reagan program aimed to make obsolete nuclear weapons. That effort failed.
On the contrary, Trump’s 2025 program is more pragmatic and attainable. After all, its goal is to make the United States safer than most aerial threats to praise an American version of “Iron Dome” by Israel. Maybe that is very ambitious and could be quite expensive, but clearly, at this time of exploiting aerial threats, it is a need for national security that is seriously considered.
