Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Directs the Building of the Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield for America

Fact Sheets

TLDR

This fact sheet attempts to justify the executive order on reviving space-based missile defense concepts, aiming to create a comprehensive national defense shield against various threats. However, it faces significant challenges including technological limitations, massive costs ($100B+), geographical complexity given the U.S.'s size, and an unrealistic 60-day planning timeline, while potentially misaligning with actual defense priorities like air and cruise missile threats.

This is a “fact sheet” for The Iron Dome for America executive order from January 27, 2025.

The name “Iron Dome for America” is misleading. Israel’s Iron Dome system is designed for short-range rockets and artillery, while this proposed system aims to address a much broader range of threats. The comparison is inappropriate given the vast difference in geographical scale and threat types.

There are numerous technical and implementation Challenges.

Space-based components:

  • The order revives Reagan-era “Star Wars” concepts of space-based interceptors, which were previously abandoned due to technological limitations and cost concerns
  • Previous cost estimates for space-based interceptor architecture have ranged upwards of $100 billion
  • The 60-day timeline for developing a comprehensive plan is extremely aggressive given the complexity of the systems involved

Current capabilities gap:

  • The U.S.'s most pressing vulnerability is actually in air and cruise missile defense, not the high-end threats this order emphasizes
  • Existing U.S. missile defense is limited to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, primarily focused on North Korean threats

The “fact sheet”'s claim about second-strike capability is fundamentally flawed. Second-strike capability refers to the ability to retaliate after a nuclear attack, not a defensive shield system. The U.S. already maintains second-strike capability through its nuclear triad.

Feasibility concerns include:

  • Geographic challenges

    • The U.S. is approximately 400 times larger than Israel, making a comprehensive shield system exponentially more complex and expensive
    • Point-defense systems like THAAD could potentially be adapted for hypersonic threats, but defending the entire continental U.S. would require an “unaffordable number of batteries”

  • Technological readiness

    • The U.S. is unlikely to field operational hypersonic defense systems before FY2025
    • Current command and control architecture may be insufficient to process data quickly enough to respond to hypersonic threats

The order provides no specific funding mechanisms or cost estimates. The implementation would require substantial long-term investment over at least the next decade, yet the order doesn’t address how these costs would be met or prioritized within the defense budget.

DEFEND THE UNITED STATES AGAINST MISSILE ATTACK: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to Build the Iron Dome for America.

  • The Executive Order directs implementation of a next-generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks.
    • With the goal of providing for the common defense of American citizens, this Order accelerates the development and deployment of Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Layers, proliferated space-based interceptors, a Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, capabilities to defeat salvoes prior to launch, non-kinetic missile defense capabilities, and underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities.
    • It also secures the supply chains for all components of the Iron Dome.
  • The Executive Order directs a review of theater missile defense posture to defend United States troops deployed abroad and an increase in cooperation on missile defense technology development, capabilities, and operations with partners and allies.

ADDRESSING VULNERABILITIES BY MODERNIZING AN OUTDATED SYSTEM:

  • The threat of attack by ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles remains a catastrophic threat facing the United States.
  • Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons—including hypersonic—has become more complex with the development of next-generation delivery systems by our adversaries.
  • Notwithstanding this increasing threat, United States homeland missile defense policy has been limited to staying ahead of rogue nation threats and accidental or unauthorized missile launches.

THE IRON DOME WILL FURTHER THE GOALS OF PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH: By empowering the United States with a second-strike capability, the Iron Dome will deter adversaries from attacks on the homeland.

  • President Trump is fulfilling his promises: “I will direct our military to begin construction of the great Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be made all in the USA.”