President Donald Trump has been publicly adamant about his desire for the United States to construct its own version of Israel’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system. The larger, still unanswered question is how much it will ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers. Dubbed the “Iron Dome of America,” it was one of Trump’s earliest directives as part of his second term, issuing an executive order on Jan. 27, 2025, saying that ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles “remain the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.” He conjured previous, similar aspirations by former President Ronald Reagan to want to construct a similar system during his first term in office. “Iron Dome” alludes to Israel’s short-range missile defense system known as the Golden Dome that has become more well known in recent years due to warfighting in Gaza. The Iron Dome, on the other hand, would encompass a much larger space across the earth. The executive order called for the defense secretary to submit architectural plans, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield. Architectural objectives included the deployment of a Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor layer, development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept, and deployment of underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities postured to defeat a countervalue attack, etc.