{"id":1520062,"date":"2025-02-19T01:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T06:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1520062"},"modified":"2025-02-19T01:55:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T06:55:00","slug":"how-a-us-iron-dome-could-reshape-global-nuclear-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-a-us-iron-dome-could-reshape-global-nuclear-relations\/1520062\/","title":{"rendered":"How A US Iron Dome Could Reshape Global Nuclear Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"

How A US Iron Dome Could Reshape Global Nuclear Relations<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is already searching for cutting-edge missile defense technologies after President Donald Trump signed a new executive order, calling for an \u201cIron Dome for America.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

An illustration of a potential U.S. defense system that President Donald Trump is directing agencies to investigate. Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0executive order<\/a> gave the Department of Defense 60 days to evaluate the U.S. missile defense network and overhaul it with hypersonic weapon sensors, space-based missile interceptors, and other so-called \u201cnon-kinetic\u201d missile defense capabilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump has also tasked military leaders with conceiving new ways to stop incoming threats earlier than ever before, including before they launch.<\/p>\n

Four days after Trump signed the order, the Missile Defense Agency published<\/a> a request for information from arms industry insiders on promising advancements to meet Trump\u2019s call for a better missile defense shield.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The quick turnaround suggests the Trump administration is urgently pursuing advanced new strategic defenses<\/a> at a moment of growing U.S. competition with Russia and China.<\/p>\n

Both nations have made advances in offensive strategic weapons technology in recent years, and the U.S. military has struggled to keep pace.<\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s order calls for several new missile defense capabilities, a major focus is on evaluating what systems already exist and whether they\u2019re deployed in the right manner to protect the United States and forward-deployed U.S. troops and allies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel Flesch, a senior policy analyst for the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation, described Trump\u2019s order as a holistic approach that expands on capabilities the U.S. military already has.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump signs executive orders at the Capital One Arena in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu\/The Epoch Times<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are the gaps, and where do we need to develop or invest?<\/strong>\u201d Flesch told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

The launch trajectory of a strategic weapon like a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is generally divided into three phases.<\/p>\n

The \u201cboost phase\u201d is the initial stage as a weapon burns its propellant at launch. <\/strong>After a ballistic missile expends most of its propellant in the liftoff, it begins its main course of flight toward its target, known as the \u201cmidcourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, after reaching the apex of its trajectory, a ballistic missile will fall toward its target in what\u2019s known as the \u201cterminal phase\u201d of its trajectory.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Navy currently has both land and ship-based variants of the SM-3 missile that can intercept enemy ballistic missiles in space, at the height of their mid-course flight. The U.S. Army also has ground-based interceptors for mid-course interceptions.<\/p>\n

For ballistic missile interceptions in the terminal phase of flight, the Navy has the ship-based SM-6 missile, while the Army has the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and newer variants of the Patriot air-defense missile system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The midcourse presents the largest window for an intercept but requires sophisticated interceptors capable of reaching ballistic missiles at high altitudes, including in space.<\/p>\n

Terminal phase interceptors don\u2019t have to reach as high as midcourse interceptors, but it\u2019s a narrow and high-stakes window to stop a ballistic missile before it reaches its final target.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The boost phase presents an attractive opportunity to stop a missile threat because the missile is less capable of evading interceptors or deploying decoys, but detecting a launch in this early stage is difficult, as is having an effective system in position to stop it.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Army test fires a Patriot missile, a mobile missile defense interceptor deployed by the United States. Ringo Chiu\/AFP via Getty Images, U.S. Army<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Along with new and improved sensors for tracking the trajectory of weapons throughout their flight, Trump\u2019s order envisions a network of space-based interceptors that could stop threats in their boost phase.<\/p>\n

Weapons researchers have long considered high-powered lasers as one potential option for boost phase interceptions.<\/p>\n

The United States and Israel have both seen advancements with lasers for intercepting drones and missiles, but more improvements may be needed to effectively counter sophisticated ballistic missiles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s order could potentially renew development for an airborne laser system for boost-phase interceptions, such as the U.S. Air Force\u2019s shelved Boeing YAL-1 airborne laser aircraft.<\/p>\n

A \u2018Star Wars\u2019 Sequel<\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s Iron Dome for America takes direct inspiration from the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a missile defense program President Ronald Reagan put in motion in 1983.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized,\u201d Trump\u2019s order states.<\/p>\n

SDI indeed looked to develop space-based and non-kinetic interception capabilities that many critics dismissed as figments of science fiction. The initiative was referred to, often derisively, as Reagan\u2019s \u201cStar Wars\u201d program<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s concept for a network of space-based interceptors bears a close resemblance to at least one SDI\u00a0concept<\/a>, codenamed \u201cBrilliant Pebbles,\u201d which called for the deployment of potentially thousands of small satellites, each armed with interceptors to stop enemy ballistic missiles in the boost phase.<\/p>\n

Read the rest here…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 02\/18\/2025 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/military\/how-us-iron-dome-could-reshape-global-nuclear-relations<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How A US Iron Dome Could Reshape Global Nuclear Relations Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The U.S. Missile Defense Agency…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1520063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1520063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}