President Trump late Monday signed an executive order to establish an “Iron Dome for America,” a 21st-century missile shield that would fulfill a major campaign promise from the president by establishing a sweeping new homeland defense system to counter missile threats from China, Russia and other adversaries.

In the order, Mr. Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit to him within 60 days “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.” That shield, which would rely primarily on space-based interceptors rather than ground-based capabilities, will defend “the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries,” the order says.

Mr. Trump’s executive order serves as an acknowledgment of a reality that national security insiders and defense analysts have long warned about: Right now, the U.S. does not have the capabilities it needs to stop well-armed adversaries from hitting the homeland with ballistic, cruise or hypersonic missiles.

“The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States. President 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,” the order reads in part, referencing Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative program.

“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the order says.

While being cast as America’s version of the Iron Dome, Mr. Trump’s vision is actually quite different from the famed Israeli Iron Dome system. The Israeli Iron Dome primarily protects against shorter-range rocket and mortar attacks, while Mr. Trump’s proposal will focus on much longer-range threats and even the most advanced, super-fast hypersonic weapons.

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The order lays out a host of specific goals for the Defense Department. Chief among them is the principle that the U.S. must have the capabilities it needs “to defeat missile attacks prior to launch and in the boost phase.” 

Specialists generally agree that the only way to do that is through space-based missile interceptors, and the order calls for the “development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept.”

There is no price tag on the order. But national security sources recently told The Washington Times they believe that it’s possible to put as many as 1,000 space-based interceptors in orbit for a cost in the tens, not hundreds, of billions of dollars.

• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.