The American Iron Dome Is an Expensive Boondoggle That Won’t Work

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President Donald Trump wants to build an American Iron Dome. He even signed an executive order to make it happen. It’s a terrible idea, one we’ve tried before, and one that will make America less safe.
In this episode, Joseph Cirincione returns to the program to detail his personal history with complicated and costly missile defense systems.
It all starts during a snowstorm in 1982 and with the High Frontier
Zombie defense pitches
It’s almost impossible to knock a bullet out of space with a bullet
How Israel’s Iron Dome works
Slow and hot vs fast and cold
Lasers don’t work, thanks Teller
Pitch: lasers in space. Reality: missile batteries in Alaska
These systems only work half the time and only under perfect conditions
SpaceX contracts abound!
A Pentagon Powerpoint slide enters chat
Jason’s Superman reverie, starring Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor
How do China and Russia react?
“The enemy gets a vote.”
The last arms control treaty
Ronald Reagan: anti-nuclear advocate
How SDI kept us from eliminating nuclear weapons
Anatomy of an arms race
AI is coming to nuclear command and control
Project 2025 and Trump Are Cooking Up a Recipe for a New Nuclear Arms Race
The Iron Dome for America Executive Order
The national missile defense fantasy—again
Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture
Why the US General In Charge of Nuclear Weapons Said He Needs AI
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