One of the reasons that Israel has been so successful in preventing widespread destruction of its country from terror attacks via missiles is the Iron Dome.
This is a missile defense system meant to destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery. Well, Donald Trump just announced plans for a similar system for the United States.
Israel’s Iron Dome was officially online in March 2011.
For the most part, the system is financed by the United States (the original system was financed by Israel) at a cost of $50 million per battery, with each interception costing about $100,000 to $150,000.
In its first year in operation, the Iron Dome intercepted roughly 400 rockets, continuing that average over the first three years of inception.
Were it not for this system, I feel fairly confident in saying that Israel would not be the country we see today.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump appeared to take everyone by surprise by announcing the selection of a design for the Golden Dome project here in the United States.
According to reports, the project has a price tag of $175 billion.
U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein was named as the lead program manager.
Trump stated, "Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago, but they didn't have the technology.”
Members of Congress clearly had no idea such a project was even being considered, as some of Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress were stunned, hinting that they would be pumping the brakes on the project until they had more details.
For instance, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) stated, "I don’t support blank checks. I haven’t seen the cost figures.”
Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) added, "This is not going to be a $25 billion or $35 billion project. It will likely cost in the trillions if and when Golden Dome is completed.” He then stated, "The challenges don’t scale linearly with the size of Israel, which is the size of New Jersey.”
When all is said and done, estimates are that the project would cost as much as $542 billion to complete, and in all honesty, that is probably a very conservative estimate. This project is so complex, far beyond anything that has ever been attempted. Let me put it this way… if a modern aircraft carrier costs about $12 billion build, how much do you think a missile interception system to literally cover the entire country would cost? It surely will not be a mere 15x a carrier.
