Trump Wants A Missile Defense System Like Israel's

Short Wave

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🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Since last week, Israel has been attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, along with many other targets around the country. Iran has fired hundreds of missiles in response. NPR correspondent Geoff Brumfiel has been watching all of this very closely because Israel's missile defenses have been a focus of the Trump White House. This year, President Trump requested funding from Congress for a "Golden Dome for America" — a missile defense system that would protect all of the United States. The idea comes from Israel's Iron Dome — a network of interceptor missiles stationed at points across the country. Iron Dome and related Israeli air defenses don't get every missile fired — including some launched in the past few days by Iran — but the Israeli military says it has intercepted thousands of rockets since it was built. Trying to get that kind of protection for America, though, might be a very different matter.

Read more of science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel's reporting on this topic and find NPR's coverage of the Middle East here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from the Kresge Foundation.
0:03.0	Established 100 years ago, the Kresge Foundation works to expand equity and opportunity in cities across America.
0:10.0	A century of impact, a future of opportunity.
0:13.1	More at Kresge.org.
0:15.5	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:20.5	Hi, shortwavers. I'm here with NPR science correspondent Jeff Brumfield.
0:25.0	So, Jeff, since last week, Israel has been attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, along with
0:30.1	many other targets around the country. What's happening there?
0:33.5	That's right. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he took this action because Iran has been stockpiling enriched uranium by some estimates enough to produce about 10 nuclear weapons if they chose to do so. And Netanyahu basically said that this was a preemptive attack to stop Iran's nuclear program.
0:54.7	And in response, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles, many of which have struck targets in central Israel.
1:01.4	And the Trump administration has been following this closely in part because Israel has a pretty sophisticated missile defense system, right, Jeff?
1:09.8	Yeah, that's right. Israel's missile defense system, colloquially as known as Iron
1:15.3	Dome, and President Trump is fascinated by it. Earlier this year, he made a speech to Congress,
1:21.7	and in it there was a big request. I'm asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome Missile
1:29.2	Defense Shield to protect our homeland, all made in the USA. Golden Dome, Trump is sort of riffing
1:38.9	off the Iron Dome name there, and Trump has talked about Golden Dome quite a bit during his campaign. He wants to see it
1:45.8	built during his second term. This is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be
1:51.8	protected and we're going to protect our citizens like never before. So today on the show,
1:57.9	we'll talk about Israel's missile defense system and what a similar system could look like in the U.S.
2:04.9	Can it be done? And how much would it cost?
2:07.7	I'm Emily Kwong.
2:08.8	And I'm Jeff Brumfield.
	...

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