Now known as “Golden Dome,” President Trump’s original call for a version of Israel's "Iron Dome" to defend America’s homeland and its overseas bases remains on point.
Israel’s military bases, infrastructure, cities, borders and other vital targets face every aerial danger imaginable, from increasingly integrated mortar, rocket and attack drone swarms to Iranian cruise and ballistic missiles that could eventually carry nuclear warheads. Working closely with the U.S., Israel has developed, produced and battle-tested the world’s most sophisticated air defense network against these threats.
The results speak for themselves. Since 2011, Iron Dome has saved countless lives by intercepting more than 90 percent of short-range projectiles fired at built-up areas. Last year, the higher layers of Israel’s air defenses that America helps fund — David’s Sling and Arrow — blunted two massive barrages of longer-range missiles from Iran, including by using hypersonic kill vehicles in the upper atmosphere and beyond.
Though America's enemies are much farther away than Israel’s, the basic imperative is similar. Unlike the Cold War, we now face two hostile superpowers, each of whom is improving its ability to attack strategic sites in our homeland with integrated strikes of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and highly maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles. North Korea and Iran have smaller but advancing intercontinental ballistic missile programs.
America’s defense establishment has focused on these evolving threats, but recently everyone from great powers to terrorists and Mexican drug cartels has proven capable of launching drones, spy balloons and other, ever more ubiquitous, aerial systems over the U.S. and our overseas bases. Beijing, Moscow and Tehran show continued interest in setting up shop in our backyard; for instance, Iran potentially building attack drone facilities in Venezuela.
Due to America’s continental size, our defensive needs are unlike Israel’s. It’s not automatic that our ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California could defeat North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile salvos, let alone larger and more complex attacks.
Many of our forces abroad are vulnerable to mass precision attacks using cruise missiles and other projectiles, necessitating certain forward-deployed defenses at sea and ashore. And while combat aircraft can defeat unarmed Chinese spy balloons, detecting even these rudimentary, slow-moving craft is difficult.
Though credible deterrence does not require eliminating every single threat, gaps in our defenses lead our adversaries to believe they can execute costly strikes on the U.S. and our forces. The urgency and scale of this challenge require a broad approach to build more ...
