Karako was asked to explain the Golden Dome missile defense effort to people outside the missile defense community. Rather than sell it as a shield, he sets a deliberately modest claim for it: not a war-winner, just something whose absence is fatal. Two turns later he goes further and says missile defense will be a limited, scarce asset like every other weapon system, and that you cannot defend everything.
You've seen the Russian kind of proliferation of crews and hypersonic and yes, undersea, you know, megaton delivery devices. It's going to be wicked hard to get everything. And that's why I think it is far more stabilizing than destabilizing when you put pen to paper and you think it through.
…order entitled An Iron Dome for America. It's since come to be called the Golden Dome effort. And for those of us who are outside the missile defense community, can you give us a description of what Golden Dome is, why it's happening now, the cost and purpose, and just make us smart, please.
…number of very sophisticated air and missile attacks on Israel, for instance, over the past couple years. And you've also seen a real, I would say, stepping out and a demonstration of the technical prowess of active air missile defense. You know, Ukraine has put the Patriot air defense system on its currency because of the significance of its to kind of preserving Ukraine's sovereignty to date. Air missile defense is not going to win a conflict for you by itself, but its absence will lose one for you pretty quick in this environment. One can just imagine what would have happened in terms of, for instance, Israel's response on April 14 of last year when hundreds and hundreds of things were coming in simultaneously. If it had not been for the engagement of so many hundreds of those things, both in the air and with ballistic missile defense, it would almost certainly have meant a massive response by Israel to Iran. And so the…
When we talk about these systems, my impression is the cost can vary considerably depending on what you're trying to achieve. Can you talk us through what some of the estimates are, both for the near term, but also as we think of this as, you know, five years out, 10 years out, what this might end…
Yeah, well, I think it is important to emphasize that every weapon system in DOD is limited, every one of them, and missile defense will be a limited, scarce asset as well. It's not going to be unlimited. I think that's something that somehow gets in the conversation on the water and needs to be…
So let's talk a little bit more about the threat. I at least was surprised in some ways by the effectiveness of missile defense against what Iran threw at Israel and also impressed by what's been happening with Ukraine when they, when at least when the systems have been in place. That said, China's…