Why Trump ordered an American version of Israel’s Iron Dome defense system
The executive order pursues a key campaign promise to enhance US national security with a state-of-the-art shield
The Iron Dome defense system in Southern Israel on May 13, 2023. Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 27, 2025
President Donald Trump signed on Monday — aboard Air Force One — an executive order to create a U.S. version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system that repels cross-border attacks and is credited with saving countless lives.
The White House said the system would be designed to protect American borders from “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next generation aerial attacks,” although the U.S. has never suffered an attack of that kind.
The order, referred to as “Iron Dome for America,” follows a Trump campaign promise.
“In my next term, we will build a great Iron Dome over our country — a dome like has never been seen before,” Trump said at a campaign rally last July, describing it as “a state-of-the-art missile defense shield that will be entirely made in the USA.” The plan was also included in the RNC 2024 platform.
Speaking Monday afternoon at the annual House Republicans retreat in Miami, Trump said that President Ronald Reagan first raised the idea in 1983 but it wasn’t possible at the time. “Now we have phenomenal technology,” he said. You see that with Israel, Trump added, noting that they intercept nearly all incoming rockets. “So I think the United States is entitled to that.”
Trump says he’s going to sign soon an executive order to create a U.S. version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 27, 2025
“Now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel...
“So I think the United States is entitled to that.” https://t.co/GLzXcmsjuX pic.twitter.com/is5AZpc06W
What is the Iron Dome?
The U.S. helped fund the creation of the Iron Dome in Israel, first proposed by the George W. Bush administration and pursued by the Obama administration, and provides substantial financial assistance for its maintenance.
The system became operational in 2011 and was first tested during the 2012 and 2014 Gaza conflicts.
Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in coordination with Raytheon and known as Kippat Barzel in Hebrew, the aerial system intercepts most of the short-range rockets and missiles fired indiscriminately at civilians by Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamic terror groups. The 10 batteries are portable, with truck-towed launchers that can be quickly relocated without the need for specialized transportation.
The Israeli military said the Iron Dome has a success rate of over 90%.
“Why should other countries have this and we don’t?” Trump said during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sharing his fascination with the interceptor technology he observed during the conflict between Hamas and Israel. “No, no, we’re going to build an Iron Dome over our country, and we’re going to be sure that nothing can come and harm our people.”
Rafael told the New York Post that its system could be adapted to protect a country as large as the U.S.
The U.S. purchased two Iron Dome batteries from Israel in 2019, which the Jewish state wanted to use just after Oct. 7, 2023, but America would face challenges with cost and practicality for a more extensive Iron Dome.
“Where would the Iron Dome system go? Around every sensitive site in the U.S.? Wouldn’t that alert spies to those locations?” Middle East scholar Steven Terner said to The Jerusalem Post. The system would also have to be integrated into the defense infrastructure already protecting the United States, which is complex and optimized for more likely threats.
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