Ret. Air Force Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell is most definitely correct in his February 4 Air and Space Force Magazine article “Air and Missile Defense for the US is an Absolute Imperative,” which also correctly notes that the building blocks already exist for President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for an “Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield for America” to protect against “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks.”

Indeed, as I noted my January 31 Newsmax article, Trump’s “Iron Dome” should revive development efforts from President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI ) era.

While most folks think SDI focused its efforts on space-based defenses, it actually fostered ballistic missile defenses for all basing modes … and against ballistic missiles of all ranges. Note that article also referred to an August 24, 2017 article, that I co-authored with Dale Teitz, calling for air- and space-based missile defenses.

Read more at Newsmax© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.