Trump wants to destroy missiles with 'space-based interceptors'

Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create an "Iron Dome for America." He directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to present a plan within 60 days for "a next-generation missile defense shield" that would eliminate "any foreign aerial attack on the Homeland." Among the proposed methods is the use of "space-based interceptors" - a network of satellites equipped with powerful laser weapons.

However, security analyst Joe Cirincione pointed out that the US "would need to deploy more than 24,700 Iron Dome batteries to defend the 3.7 million square miles of the continental United States". This would cost nearly $2.5 trillion and still "even protect Mar-a-Lago from missiles fired from the Bahamas, some 80 miles away."

Despite technological advancements over the past four decades, The Washington Post notes that building a nationwide missile defense shield, as promised in the 2024 Republican platform, is no more practical today than it was in 1983.

"There is zero possibility of a comprehensive missile defense of the United States in the foreseeable future," James Miller, who served as undersecretary of defense in the administration of former US President Barack Obama, told reporters.

He said that "a lot of studies have shown space-based interceptors to only have value if the adversary doesn’t take obvious steps to defeat them."

"I don’t think we can count on our adversaries being that stupid," Miller added.

US idea of missile interception from space

The concept of space-based missile interception is not new in the United States. In 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan announced the launch of the Strategic Defense Initiative, widely known as Star Wars, with the goal of making nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Reagan envisioned space-based lasers shooting down Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, effectively creating a space shield to protect America from nuclear Armageddon.

After more than 40 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in missile defense spending, the United States has not come close to achieving this goal. Space lasers proved impractical, as did the idea of deploying thousands of interceptors in orbit. The Airborne Laser - a Boeing 747 equipped with a laser - reached the testing phase before being canceled as too impractical.

At the same time, the United States has developed and deployed effective missile defense systems, such as the Patriot missile batteries and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, for use against short- and medium-range missiles. However, efforts to defend against a full-scale nuclear strike on the US have not advanced beyond former President George W. Bush’s deployment of 44 ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California in 2004.

This system was designed to counter only a limited number of missiles, not a large-scale nuclear attack from Russia or China. Even its effectiveness remains uncertain, as interceptors have successfully hit their targets in only 50% of test scenarios.

As reported earlier, US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on creating an Iron Dome for America in the near future.