President Donald Trump on Monday signed a new executive order to deploy and maintain a next-generation missile defense shield to protect the country and critical infrastructure from foreign aerial attacks.
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Secretary of Defense’s Responsibilities
The White House said Monday the EO titled The Iron Dome for America will direct the secretary of defense to submit within the next two months a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements and an implementation plan for the missile defense shield.
According to the EO, the reference architecture should include plans for U.S. defense against hypersonic, ballistic, advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation aerial attacks from adversaries; acceleration of the deployment of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor layer; and development and fielding of a custody layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.
The secretary should review relevant authorities of the Department of Defense to build and deploy capabilities; work with the director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit a plan on how to fund the initiative; and cooperate with U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Northern Command to provide an updated assessment of the strategic missile threat and a prioritized set of locations to defend against a countervalue attack by nuclear adversaries.
Theater Missile Defense Review
The EO mandates that the DOD secretary order a review of theater missile defense posture and related efforts to identify ways in which the U.S. and its allies can improve theater missile defenses of U.S. troops and allied territories and enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation on the development of missile defense technologies, among others.