President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to develop an American version of the Israeli "Iron Dome" missile defense system, citing an increasing "threat from next-generation strategic weapons."
Trump pledged on the campaign trail that he would "direct our military to begin construction of the great Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be made all in the USA." The order, released late Monday night, outlined plans to "further the goal of peace through strength" by "deploying and maintaining a next-generation missile defense shield."
"The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States," the order states. "President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized."
"Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities," the order continues. It goes on to outline a 60-day window in which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will submit "a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield."
Victoria Coates, who served as Trump's deputy national security adviser during the president's first term, said the missile defense plan "will fulfill President Reagan's vision for the Strategic Defense Initiative laid out some four decades ago," noting that the program "was designed, in Reagan's words, 'to prevent deaths rather than avenge them.'"
"Like Israel's highly effective system of the same name, President Trump's Iron Dome will provide an impenetrable defense for the American people that will bring peace through strength," Coates added.
Israel's Iron Dome has intercepted thousands of rockets from Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists.
"Given the dangerous global situation President Trump has inherited, it is only prudent to provide this type of protection for the American people as well," Coates told the Daily Signal.