Trump's push follows in the footsteps of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a scrapped program popularly called "Star Wars."

For more than 60 years, the military has launched reconnaissance, communications, and missile warning satellites into orbit. Trump's executive order calls for the Pentagon to come up with a design architecture, requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield within 60 days.

President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order for a “next generation” defense shield to protect the US against ballistic missiles and other long-range attack.

This new initiative expands upon decades of U.S. missile defense efforts, building on technologies from the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative and modernizing the U.S. response to rising threats from China,

Huntsville should play a big part in President Trump's Iron Dome of America plan, with 85% of the missile defense agency footprint already on Redstone Arsenal.

An executive order said the United States faced a “catastrophic threat” from advanced aerial weapons. But a defense system like Israel’s may not be feasible in the country, which is more than 400 times larger.

The initiative announced by Donald Trump on "Iron Dome for America" is more than just a plan to build another anti-ballistic system. It harkens back to the "Star Wars" concept, with which President Ronald Reagan challenged the Soviet Union in the 1980s.