Jan 28, 2025
The US plans to create a missile defense system that President Donald Trump has called the “Iron Dome for America.” The plan includes the deployment of yet-to-be-developed interceptors in space, as well as the fast-tracking of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor layer, Vedomosti writes.
In his executive order, Trump invoked the Ronald Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative, which aimed to develop a space-based missile defense system. The Strategic Defense Initiative remained active after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Its supporters argued for maintaining the system by citing threats from so-called rogue states. However, in 1993-1994, the Clinton administration revised the US strategic defense doctrine, shifting focus to ground-based missile defense systems, ultimately leading to the initiative’s dismantling.
The US possesses the capacity to establish a large-scale missile defense system, but it offers little promise in terms of protecting the entire country, Igor Shkrobtak, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, said. “Not a single missile system is capable of fully neutralizing a massive missile launch. What Trump has said seems more like a negotiation tactic, even though certain signs suggest a potential militarization of space,” the expert noted. He stressed that satellites and space debris would hinder the effective operation of a hypothetical space-based missile defense system.
It’s impossible to cover the entire US against advanced nuclear weapon delivery systems, but localized defenses could be arranged by combining various weapons and intelligence assets, Dmitry Stefanovich, an expert with the Center for International Security at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, observed. He did not rule out that since the current US administration views the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative as a factor that made Soviet leaders more flexible in strategic stability talks in the second half of the 1980s, it might be seeking to replicate the strategy. “However, this approach is overly simplistic. I think we will see a further escalation of tensions,” Stefanovich noted.
“It seems that Trump aspires to follow in Reagan’s footsteps, but his initiative will likely meet the same fate. It will be very difficult to implement. Apart from the immense costs, the problem is that today, no technology exists to effectively intercept hypersonic missiles capable of maneuvering mid-flight. Such technologies are unlikely to emerge anytime soon, while all Trump has is four years,” retired Lieutenant General Viktor Yesin, a military expert, told Kommersant.
