The United States should have its version of the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system to protect against foreign threats, Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has said. The Indian-origin billionaire believes such a system is essential for homeland defence, given the advanced missile capabilities of countries like Russia.
When asked to explain, he said, “Russia has hypersonic missile capabilities ahead of that in the US. We're vulnerable to new threats in our homeland. Those hypersonic missiles can reach the United States of America today. We're badly vulnerable.”
He added, “Foreign policy establishment has spent our national defence budget on basically everything other than defending the homeland.”
The Iron Dome is an anti-missile defence system used by Israel. It is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometres (approximately 2.5 to 43 miles). The system uses radar to detect incoming projectiles and then launches interceptor missiles to destroy them in the air before they reach their intended targets on the ground.
The Iron Dome has been effective in protecting certain Israeli cities and communities from rocket attacks by Hamas.
Can the US have an Iron Dome of its own?
Implementing a system like the Iron Dome in the United States poses several challenges. The US doesn't encounter the same threat of short-range missile barrages from neighbouring territories that the Iron Dome is designed to counter.
The US has already invested heavily in resources, including hundreds of billions of dollars and decades of development, into addressing next-generation missile threats. It's not an overlooked issue, as Vivek Ramaswamy suggested, but rather a complex and ongoing aspect of US defence strategy.
Moreover, a 2023 Congressional Research Service report explains that each Iron Dome battery covers about 60 square miles. To protect the entire US, thousands of such batteries would be needed, and they might not defend against the advanced hypersonic missiles that Mr Ramaswamy mentioned. It is a complex and massive task for a large country like the United States.
