US President Donald Trump has signed a decree on the creation of an American analogue of the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system. According to NBC News, the new shield will be designed to protect against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, as well as other air threats.
It is assumed that all components of the new missile defense system will be manufactured in the United States. The American version of the Iron Dome will have a much larger scale, since the area of the USA is 9.8 million square kilometers, which significantly exceeds the size of Israel. Experts warn that the creation of such a system will be technically complex and extremely expensive.
The original «Iron Dome», developed by the Israeli company Rafael, protects against unguided tactical missiles with a range of 50−200 km and can cover an area of up to 1,500 square kilometers. The system has been successfully used to defend Israeli cities from rocket attacks. However, the effectiveness of adapting this technology for the USA raises questions due to the scale of the territory.
Trump has also previously announced plans to create a «hypersonic» a missile capable of reaching speeds 17 times faster than the fastest missiles in existence today. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, progress in this area remains limited, and ready-made hypersonic weapons will not appear in service for at least a decade.