An Iron Dome for America

Donald Trump has promised to build a missile defense system to protect the continental U.S. from a nuclear strike. A new report lays out how it might look

- ELLIE COOK

THE U.S. IS NOT PREPARED ENOUGH FOR A possible long-range missile strike from Russia, China or North Korea, a new report revealed, offering one potential road map for Donald Trump to piece together the American version of Isra-el's vaunted Iron Dome system he has pledged to build around the U.S.

The report, penned by Robert Soofer, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy in the previous Trump administration, said the threat of long-range strikes—including those using intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads—hitting U.S. territory is “real and growing.”

Soofer, writing for the Atlantic Council, recommended the incoming Trump administration quickly build up U.S. stocks of specific types of interceptor missiles to knock out a possible incoming attack, rather than rely on the threat of retaliation to make sure the likes of North Korea, China or Russia do not attack the continental U.S.

Further down the line, the U.S. government should invest in space-based interceptors as well as directed-energy weapons now on the cusp of coming into use in various countries, Soofer says. Combined, an extra $4 or $5 billion should be plugged annually into the homeland missile defense chunk of the Mis-sile Defense Agency’s annual budget, Soofer argued, on top of the $3 billion currently earmarked.

“Combined, this would amount to about 1 percent of the defense budget for the number 1 national defense priority,” the report says.

Washington can hit back at another country if they strike the U.S., the report argued, but it can only effectively block a first hit from North Korea and only if it uses a few warheads. Trump has pledged to “build an Iron Dome” over the U.S. to ensure that “nothing can come and harm our people,” but hasn’t laid out how he plans to achieve this.

Contacted for further comment, the Trump transition team told