Northrop Grumman graphic representation of how Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) satellites are meant to operate and enable targeting of enemy missiles. Photo: Northrop Grumman

President Trump has signed an executive order for the Pentagon to move out on developing an “Iron Dome for America,” a massive, likely multi-billion dollar project that will utilize space-based interceptors.

New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has 60 days to submit a plan for building out the “next-generation missile defense shield,” with the White House expecting the project to be included in the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget request.

“The United States will provide for the common defense of its citizens and the nation by deploying and maintaining a next-generation missile defense shield. The United States will deter — and defend its citizens and critical infrastructure against — any foreign aerial attack on the homeland; and the United States will guarantee its secure second-strike capability,” the executive order states.

Within 60 days, Hegseth is tasked with delivering a “reference architecture” for the design of the Iron Dome, a capabilities-based requirements document and an implementation plan for the project.

The executive order states the “Iron Dome for America” is intended to defend against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats and other advanced aerial attacks, which the White House said “remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”

“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 executive order states.

While the project’s name alludes to Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, it’s likely the Trump administration’s project will differ greatly as the Israeli system is designed to defend against short-range rockets, artillery and drone threats while covering a much smaller area than that of the continental United States.

The “Iron Dome for America” is expected to incorporate Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) layer along with “proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept,” “underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities postured to defeat a countervalue attack” and “a custody layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.”

While the executive order is light on technology specifics, it notes the project will also utilize “capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch and in the boost phase” and non-kinetic capabilities.

The massive project will require congressional support to advance its efforts to rapidly develop and deploy such capabilities, with House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) backing the project in a statement on Tuesday.

“I’m thrilled to see President Trump prioritize the modernization and expansion of U.S. missile defense,” Rogers said. “In the FY ‘24 NDAA, our committee removed outdated policy limitations that prevented our missile defenses from being focused toward threats by near-peer adversaries. President Trump’s order makes it clear our missile defenses will be oriented to defend against all threats from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.”

Roman Schweizer, a defense analyst with TD Cowen, wrote on Tuesday that the project is likely to have a “very positive” impact for existing programs of record with firms such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, L3Harris Technologies, Boeing and others.

While the executive order singles out few specific programs, such as HBTSS, Schweizer noted the “Iron Dome for America” could incorporate efforts such as the Next-Generation Interceptor, PAC-3 MASE interceptors, AEGIS Ashore, Long-Range Discrimination Radar, Ground-Based Interceptor, THAAD, the Standard Missile family and more.

“We see it as a massive expansion of space- and ground-based systems, to include space-based interceptors. It will be a priority and could require tens of [billions of dollars] to develop and field,” Schweizer wrote.

Tom Karako, director of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Missile Defense Project, said the “devil will be in the details” on how “Iron Dome for America” is actually budgeted and planned for across the Pentagon.

“…And plans are only as good as the budgets behind them. But it is certainly past time to introduce disruptive capabilities into the missile defense enterprise. There’s been a lot of talk over the past decade, but significant action will be required to meaningfully adapt our policies, programs, and posture to the renewed era of strategic competition,” Karako said in a statement. “It remains to be seen exactly what an ‘Iron Dome for America’ might mean. The conversation to be had now is how to translate that metaphor and these aspirations into concrete programmatic and budgetary reality.”

Along with building out the “Iron Dome for America” the executive order also directs DoD to review the relevant authorities and organizations required to rapidly develop such a system and calls for the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Strategic Command and Northern Command to submit an updated assessment on the strategic missile threat to the homeland and to select a “prioritized set of locations to progressively defend against a countervalue attack by nuclear adversaries.”

The White House’s executive order notes the project’s similarities to Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars,” which failed to achieve fielding of the space-based missile defense system.

“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.  And since the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and initiated development of limited homeland missile defense, official United States homeland missile defense policy has remained only to stay ahead of rogue-nation threats and accidental or unauthorized missile launches,” the executive order states.

This story was first published by Defense Daily