The White House recently published a fact sheet detailing President Trump's executive order to build an 'Iron Dome' missile defense shield for America, similar to Israel's defenses that are designed to intercept incoming missiles at a variety of altitudes and distances.
Bishop Derek Jones, a retired Air Force fighter pilot who now serves as executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, says the next-generation style system is based upon current technologies and "will be easy to implement."
He says President Trump has made it clear that he wants to modernize an outdated system.
"With the current laser technology and what can be done both with lasers and hardline ballistics, quite frankly, it sounds ambitious, but I don't think it's all that ambitious," Jones submits. "I think it's absolutely doable, and doable fairly quickly."
Gordon Klingenschmitt, an Air Force Academy graduate who served as a missile launch officer with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, says Israel has been so successful because of American technology, and "it's time to apply that American technology here at home and use the lessons Israel has brought to defend American soil."
He also points out that China's emergence as a global nuclear power makes it absolutely imperative that this defense system gets built.
"China has a silo-based ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) that can reach the US mainland, so we need an Iron Dome defense system like Israel has to shoot down incoming warheads," he insists.
The former missile officer further suggests that Trump is following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, who tried to launch the Strategic Defense Initiative to shoot down incoming Russian ICBMs.
"That was never properly funded, and thankfully, the Soviet Union collapsed," he notes.
The executive order is for a defense shield that would protect the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks. The goal is to provide for the common defense of American citizens.
The order also secures the supply chains for all components of the Iron Dome.
Jones thinks Trump's commitment to set military spending based upon the Gross National Product makes the system all the more achievable.
Read related op-ed: America's 'Iron Dome' -- a challenge and a necessity
Editor's note: Story updated to include Klingenschmitt's comments.
