In a recent interview with SpaceNews, Christopher Spagnoletti, chief product officer at Ursa Major, said “we believe Draper fills a gap that the United States has in its armaments and targets.”
The Trump administration is looking to fill this supposed gap with its Iron Dome initiative. In January President Trump issued an executive order calling for the Defense Department to build an “Iron Dome for America”. The name is a clear reference to Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.
According to Trump’s executive order, the US Iron Dome would serve as “a next-generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks.” Essentially, this system would use weapons to destroy incoming missiles during their boost phase.