Bring on the Golden Dome with Iran war, the age of missile defense is here

We officially live in the age of missile defense. The US-Israeli war against Iran has been the showcase for missile-defense systems — interceptors, radars, and complex command and control — that are extremely robust and have largely defanged Iran’s foremost military threat to Israel, American forces and other countries around the region. If not for these defensive systems, the United States and Israel probably wouldn’t have dared launch this military campaign — or at the very least would have done so knowing that Iran could exact an enormous cost on Israeli civilians and allied military forces. We’ve seen the toll of one successful Iranian ballistic missile strike: A missile that hit a synagogue in the Beit Shemesh area where people were sheltering killed nine people and wounded nearly 30, according to the latest reports.It left a massive crater, destroyed cars and set fire to other buildings in the vicinity.Imagine that destruction multiplied dozens or hundreds of times a day in Iranian retaliatory attacks. That’s what Tehran has been going for with its massive barrage.As of Monday it had fired more than 500 missiles and more than 800 drones — and gotten tragic, but minimal, results from expending a significant share of its overall arsenal. That is thanks to the integrated, highly effective US and Israel missile-defense systems — most famously, in Israel’s case, Iron Dome — that have knocked down almost everything thrown their way. These intercepts aren’t just one-off tactical successes: They have a major strategic effect. Iran built its stocks of missiles to deter its enemies and to protect its regime, its weapons programs and its broader geo-political project.By blunting its missile threat, US and Israeli defenses opened up a vista for what President Donald Trump hopes will be the most emphatic counter-proliferation campaign in recent memory. In other words, missile defenses may make it possible to ensure that the Iranian regime ...