An Iron Dome for America?

 

I see President Trump has signed an executive order requiring that an "Iron Dome"-type anti-aircraft and anti-missile system be installed in the United States.  Given the sheer surface area of this country, it obviously won't be cost-effective to build a system to cover every square foot of our land;  but that's also not necessary.  Major cities, critical infrastructure and essential facilities can be covered much more easily and cheaply.

The interesting fact, of course, is that Israel's Iron Dome system is largely manufactured in the USA, using our military aid dollars for the purpose.  Those aid dollars can only be spent on American weapons systems.  Israel therefore designs its critical weapons in-house, and when they're perfected, contracts out their manufacture to US companies, thus providing jobs to our people and revenue (and some interesting new technology) to our government.  Thus, America can simply increase the production of Iron Dome missiles and electronics, and divert the excess to our own needs.  I'm sure Israel will be only too happy to approve such an arrangement, given that we subsidize its defense needs to the tune of billions of dollars every year.  (Whether or not we should spend so much on Israel is another matter, producing a lot of very spirited debate in political circles.)

As a matter of fact, we already have a couple of Iron Dome batteries to play with.  Two were activated at Fort Bliss in 2020 to provide the Army with an interim cruise missile defense capability.  By now the US armed forces should have acquired enough operational and institutional experience with them to be familiar with our needs, and has a core of personnel trained to operate them.  That will also speed up the deployment of new systems if they're urgently required.

The US military has traditionally placed less emphasis on anti-aircraft and anti-missile defenses than other countries, because it's relied on the traditional air superiority of the US Air Force to protect the rest of the armed forces.  That air superiority is now increasingly challenged, as witnessed in the efforts to protect ships in the Red Sea area from Houthi missile attacks.  Air raids and aircraft-launched missiles have not stopped enough of them from getting through.  Israel has a ferociously effective air force, but it hasn't relied on that alone to stop incoming fire - hence its development of Iron Dome and other missiles.  If we follow their example, and use their combat-tested technology, I think it'll give us a head start on filling in a capability gap for our armed forces.

Peter