Trump wants an ‘Iron Dome’ over the US. But even a mini version in the Pacific is taking a while
Seoul, South Korea CNN —
President Donald Trump has called for an expansive, next-generation missile defense shield for the mainland United States, something modeled on Israel’s formidable defenses, typified by its signature Iron Dome system.
A defensive dome for the US – a country hundreds of times the size of Israel – would require massive scale, as well as space-based interceptors, and almost certainly be decades away.
Yeton the piece of US soil perhaps most vulnerable to missile attacks – the Pacific island of Guam – work is well underway on the kind of multi-layered missile defense that could point the way.
However, experts say even that faces steep challenges.
“There are no fast or panacea solutions, and we are making the decisions late in the game even though visionary military and political leaders saw this coming in the 1990s,” said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.
Guam’s early success
The US territory of Guam, a 210-square-mile island in the Pacific Ocean, is home to just under 175,000 people. It also hosts Andersen Air Force Base – a key deployment base for US Air Force bombers such as the B-1 and B-52 and sometimes the stealthy B-2 – and is homeport to US nuclear attack submarines that could be vital in any defense of Taiwan.
The island is less than 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) from China (PRC) and 2,100 miles from North Korea. Mockups of it have shown up in China’s military propaganda videos, and North Korea has made threats against it.
But the US military has not stood still, advancing its ability to defend against regional threats.
Just last December, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) conducted the first successful intercept