Golden Dome could leave US vulnerable to drone attacks without Israeli systems

EXCLUSIVE: As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets President Donald Trump successful Washington for talks expected to halfway connected Iran and determination security, a caller study is urging the medication to grow U.S.–Israel defence practice by making Israeli air-defense exertion a cardinal constituent of Golden Dome, the planned layered rocket shield intended to detect, way and intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons and drones earlier they tin onslaught the United States.

The study warns that the planned American rocket shield could permission U.S. cities, subject installations and captious infrastructure exposed to progressively communal drone and cruise-missile threats if Washington directs excessively overmuch wealth toward costly space-based systems that could instrumentality years to go operational.

The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) report, titled "The Missing Shield: Acquiring Israeli Air Defenses Makes Golden Dome Sustainable," argues that the initiative’s existent backing priorities favour strategical and space-based capabilities that could instrumentality years to make portion giving insufficient attraction to much frequent, lower-altitude threats specified arsenic drones, cruise missiles and shorter-range projectiles.

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Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile strategy intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, arsenic seen from the metropolis of Ashkelon, Israel, Oct. 9, 2023. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Ari Cicurel, the report’s author, told Fox News Digital that long-range defenses stay indispensable but should not travel astatine the disbursal of systems susceptible of stopping threats that could scope the United States now.

"Right present the existent attack is spending the clip and wealth chiefly connected space, agelong scope threats, which are perfectly needed," Cicurel said. "But the astir predominant and contiguous threats are really abbreviated scope projectiles, peculiarly drones."

Cicurel pointed to caller drone enactment implicit American cities, including Washington, D.C., arsenic grounds that the information is not confined to overseas battlefields.

"We’ve seen respective drone overflights of cities, including successful Washington, D.C., implicit the past fewer months," helium said. "And that’s surely the astir predominant menace that the U.S. needs to beryllium addressing."

The study estimates that the Israeli-designed launchers it examined are 58% to 88% little expensive, interceptors 19% to 97% little costly and radars 32% to 87% little costly than the U.S. systems utilized for comparison. JINSA argues those savings could let the Pentagon to acquisition much launchers, grow interceptor stockpiles and sphere backing for costly strategical and space-based technologies.

The Pentagon told Fox News Digital that Golden Dome is being designed arsenic a layered strategy susceptible of addressing a wide scope of threats.

"Golden Dome for America continues to absorption its efforts connected protecting America and delivering connected President Trump’s imaginativeness for homeland defense," a Pentagon authoritative said.

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks successful the Oval Office aft President Trump announced his plans for the Golden Dome. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The authoritative said the implementation program remains "dynamic" and is intended to support against "the afloat spectrum of evolving threats," including hypersonic and ballistic missiles, precocious cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems.

The standard of the choices up was underscored by a May 12 Congressional Budget Office analysis. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a notional nationalist missile-defense strategy broadly accordant with Trump’s enforcement bid could outgo astir $1.2 trillion passim 20 years to develop, deploy and operate. 

The bureau stressed that the estimation was not a projection of the Pentagon’s existent Golden Dome program due to the fact that the section had not released capable details astir its intended architecture.

The Congressional Budget Office modeled 4 interceptor layers, including a space-based layer, 2 wide-area aboveground layers and a determination surface-defense layer.

The JINSA study proposes making Israeli-designed defenses a cardinal portion of those little layers. It recommends Iron Dome for short-range threats, David’s Sling for medium-range threats, Arrow for ballistic missiles and Iron Beam for lower-cost laser interception.

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TOPSHOT - This agelong vulnerability shows trails and explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome rocket defence strategy implicit Tel Aviv connected February 28, 2026. The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran connected February 28, with Israel's nationalist broadcaster reporting that the Iranian ultimate person had been targeted, arsenic the Islamic republic retaliated with barrages of missiles astatine Gulf states and Israel. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

Cicurel said the connection should not beryllium seen simply arsenic buying overseas weapons due to the fact that Washington helped concern their improvement and American companies already enactment successful their production.

"What we’re truly talking astir is yet leveraging American taxation dollars that person gone to assistance produce, assistance make these Israeli systems," helium said.

One 100 and 2 companies crossed 34 states enactment successful producing Israeli air-defense systems.

Asked specifically whether the Pentagon is evaluating Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow oregon Iron Beam for purchase, integration oregon expanded co-production, the authoritative declined to say.

"We person thing caller to denote astatine this time," the authoritative said. "Due to operational information and the request to support our competitory advantages, we volition not supply further details."

The study besides argues that caller warring with Iran demonstrated however precocious interception rates tin obscure vulnerabilities, including accelerated depletion of interceptor inventories, strained accumulation lines and attacks against radar systems anchoring antiaircraft networks.

"Both the U.S. and the Israeli defence concern bases were not good equipped to grip the magnitude of accumulation that either state needed," Cicurel said.

The study calls for dedicated Golden Dome backing for short- and medium-range defenses, expanded associated production, and the inclusion of Golden Dome practice successful the adjacent U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding. It besides recommends updating export-control and technology-sharing rules, portion acknowledging challenges involving interoperability, classified information and intelligence property.

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Digitized conception plan of Golden Dome (Lockheed Martin)

Trump repeatedly has described Golden Dome arsenic a defining homeland-defense project, saying it would make a shield susceptible of protecting the United States from precocious rocket threats. Whether Israeli systems go portion of that architecture remains unclear, but Netanyahu’s sojourn gives some governments an accidental to propulsion the contented higher connected the bilateral defence agenda.