President Trump’s newly announced space-based missile defense system could serve as leverage against Russian nuclear threats and its ongoing war in Ukraine, defense experts tell Forbes. The initiative, outlined in an executive order titled The Iron Dome for America, comes as Moscow continues to brandish its nuclear capabilities amid its invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, Trump’s efforts to mediate peace in Ukraine face significant challenges. While his team is reportedly working behind the scenes to arrange talks, no official details of his plan have been made public.

“Russia has been threatening nuclear weapons use and claiming to have developed new weapon types,” Elena Grossfeld, a space arms race expert at King’s College London, tells Forbes in an interview.

She suggests that the countervailing Space Age missile defense project could be aimed at halting Putin’s belligerence or even pressuring him to enter talks on withdrawing his troops from Ukraine.

The proposal’s timing is significant, coming just days after Trump revealed at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he had discussed nuclear arms reductions with Russian President Putin.

“We want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that’s very possible,” Trump said, adding that “President Putin wanted to do it.”

The initiative mirrors President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which sought to render nuclear weapons obsolete through space-based defenses. However, Victoria Samson, Chief Director of Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation, warns of significant technical hurdles.

“The US would need thousands of interceptors in orbit just to ensure one was in place to hit a launch,” she said, noting that interceptors would have only ‘about 3-5 minutes’ to react to solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently set its Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight, citing heightened nuclear tensions. The organization warns that Russia’s repeated threats to use nuclear weapons against nations supporting Kyiv could lead to catastrophe—whether by a rash decision, accident, or miscalculation.

A space defense analyst interviewed by Forbes adds that sharing this defensive technology with nuclear powers willing to reduce their stockpiles—similar to Reagan’s offer to the Soviet Union—could be crucial to avoiding a new arms race.

Read more:

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