Trump orders construction of Israel-style 'Iron Dome' to protect US from missiles
Trump orders construction of Israel-style 'Iron Dome' to protect US from missiles
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Donald Trump has ordered the construction of an Israel-like Iron Dome air defence system to protect the US from missiles. The Republican President signed the executive order to build "The Iron Dome for America" dubbing it the "next generation" of missile defence systems. Trump said the defence system was needed to protect against the "threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles.".
His executive order made reference to the Iron Dome, Israel's key defence system. The Iron Dome is an air defence system that counters drone and missile attacks on the Middle Eastern Country. Israel's Iron Dome was utilised as Hezbollah militants carried out attacks on the state as well as when Iran launched a direct assault last year. But the coverage of the defence system covers some 60 square miles, a size much smaller than the American borders.
US military officials have grown concerned about the military capabilities of China, Russia and Iran - all of which have hypersonic missiles. The Atlantic Council (AC) previously said Russia and China's nuclear doctrine allows a limited use of nuclear and conventional weapons to "coerce the US.".
It added: "Moscow and Beijing appear now to calculate that their respective threats to escalate to limited nuclear war will be sufficient to paralyze direct US opposition to their regional expansionism.” The January 4 report argued in favour of a missile defence system in order to counter the capabilities of Russia and China in particular.
The AC admitted "costs will be significant" and said a "reasonable" starting point would be an additional $4 billion (£3.2bn) to $5bn (£4bn) on top of the $3bn (£2.4bn) allocated for homeland missile defence, or about one tenth of how much the UK spends on its entire military. It would be a tiny fraction of the more than $916bn (£750bn) it currently spends on its military.
