One of President Donald Trump's recent executive orders will require buy-in from Congress if it's ever going to come to fruition: A desire to build an Iron Dome-style missile defense system for the U.S.
This week president Trump signed an executive order called "The Iron Dome for America." It calls for defense officials to plan a "next-generation missile defense shield" modeled on the one used in Israel.
The Iron Dome, which was developed with U.S. collaboration, uses radar to monitor for more than a thousand aerial targets at a time. Its computer systems determine whether incoming missiles threaten populated areas, and launch missiles to intercept any that pose a danger. Over the last year, that system has stopped thousands of rockets from Hamas from landing in Israel.
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The new executive order calls for a defense system with expanded capabilities, including "development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors."
On his first day on the job, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth highlighted the Iron Dome as a priority for the U.S. military.
The cost of a such a system would be significant, particularly since the area of the U.S. to defend is so much larger than that of Israel. Some estimates hold that the full cost could be more than $2 trillion — more than double the nation's entire current military budget.
