The Center for Public Integrity:
President Donald Trump on Jan. 17 unveiled an expansive new military doctrine that calls for the country to be able to block all enemy missiles, a new challenge that many experts say exceeds what’s technologically feasible or affordable and also upends longstanding policy about keeping missile defense limited to avoid setting off a new arms race.
In a speech capping a lengthy policy review by his aides, Trump declared that “our goal is simple, to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States, anywhere, anytime, anyplace.”
That’s a much more ambitious task than the Pentagon’s existing missile defense mission to detect and destroy a relatively small volley of ballistic missiles launched by accident or deliberately from countries like Iran or North Korea. That mission has already consumed over $200 billion and had only limited success, producing several dozen missile interceptors that have worked half the time in major tests.
