Former President Donald Trump renewed his vow to build an "iron dome" defense shield over the U.S.
Trump, the current clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, told crowds in New Hampshire over the weekend that, if reelected, he will build a missile defense system similar to the one used in Israel.
The Israeli defense system, known as Iron Dome, routinely stops rockets in Israel's war against Hamas terrorists.
"We'll build an iron dome over our country, a state-of-the-art missile defense shield, and it's all made in the USA," Trump said Sunday at a rally in New Hampshire, NBC News reported. "I think it's time that we have one."
A day earlier, Trump said an iron dome will "prevent World War III."
"We've never been so close. You just have to check out the news," he said, NBC News reported.
Trump on Monday tried to explain how a missile defense system works, Yahoo News reported.
"They go 'missile launched!' and you hear a bell go, I mean, I see this, it's so incredible," said Trump, who proceeded to explain that "geniuses" then do what's needed at a keyboard.
"They've only got 17 seconds to figure this whole thing out, right? Boom, OK. Missile launch, pssshng, poom! It's the most ― and we don't have it here!"
Trump initially explained his iron dome intention during a campaign stop in Orlando, Florida, in November.
"To protect our citizens from foreign threats, I will build a state-of-the-art missile defense shield," Trump told supporters. "We will build that. We will build them.
"We need it."
The U.S. military has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and invested decades of research into missile defense development with only limited results, NBC News reported.
"We're seeing a lot of positive news on missile defense. It's doing really good work on protecting civilians in Ukraine and Israel now," said John Erath, a former National Security Council official who's senior policy director for the nonprofit Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, NBC News reported.
"But what is going on there is far different from what is being worked on and planned and may someday come to pass defending the U.S. homeland. It's apples and oranges."
Israel's Iron Dome system, focused on stopping short-range attacks, works through a combination of radar to detect incoming threats, batteries that launch interceptor missiles carrying proximity warheads, and communication systems to relay guidance data, Axios reported in October.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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