Sean Bell: US defense shield dates to Reagan

The idea of a US defense shield isn’t new, but dates back to the Reagan era, says military analyst Sean Bell.

Transcript

00:00And therefore, it's a very different look.

00:02For America, you'll probably remember it was 30 years ago that Ronald Reagan had the Strategic

00:07Defense Initiative looking at a sort of a dome led from space, potentially to protect

00:13America.

00:14I think all that President Trump's doing is saying, after decades of focusing on wars

00:18overseas, are we properly protected?

00:21And part of his narrative around Greenland, you remember he said he wanted to secure Greenland.

00:27That's because they have a space base there, because the shortest distance between Russia

00:33and America is over Greenland.

00:36And therefore, you need to be able to detect, track, and destroy any incoming missiles.

00:42That's not a capability that West has needed for the last three decades.

00:45All he's doing is focusing that actually something needs to be done to address that balance.