An American ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense shield could cost the U.S. trillions of dollars and ignore what made Israel’s system successful. Last month, President Donald Trump directed the construction of an ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense shield to protect the U.S. from potential airborne attacks.
![[Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system defends a much smaller space. Tens of thousands of systems would be necessary to defend the continental U.S.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/19/16/24/GettyImages-2147803089.jpeg)
Named for Israel’s short-range missile defense system, the White House claims that the plan would “further the goal of peace through strength.”. But, experts say the plan for the “next-generation” shield flies in the face of reality. Notably, hypersonic missile detection may be easier than detecting intercontinental ballistic missiles because they would give off tremendous heat as they hurdle through Earth’s atmosphere.
The cost of this system is estimated in trillions: more than the missiles they are meant to defend against. Trump’s order comes amid massive cuts at critical government agencies. On Tuesday night, the president and billionaire Elon Musk told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that they aim to get $1 trillion dollars eliminated from the budget.
“The Iron Dome reference conjures up the success of the Israeli missile defense, but that’s misleading given the relatively short-range missiles that Israel defends against and the small territory it needs to defend,” he said. “The Iron Dome defensive system defends about 45 square kilometers of space. You would need tens of thousands of Iron Dome systems at about $100 million apiece to defend the continental United States,” he added. “I tallied it up, it would cost about $2.5 trillion to try to do it that way, if it worked at all. But, of course, it doesn’t.”.
Cirincione noted that America has spent $415 billion on missile systems and interceptors. “None of them have worked against intercontinental ballistic missiles,” he said, noting that the missiles are much harder to hit than any systems Israel has encountered.
