The United States is estimated to have spent more than $400 billion on the kinds of antimissile goals that the president now says will provide “for the common defense.”

The first Trump administration floated a space weapon concept in March 2018: a neutral particle beam in space. But it ultimately shelved the idea because of the massive amount of power needed to destroy a missile with directed energy.

President Donald Trump’s Monday night executive order on the creation of an “Iron Dome for America” calls for much more than the air defense system Israel utilizes. The order calls for “a next-generation missile defense shield” to protect the homeland.