Russia slams Trump plan for 'Star Wars' missile shield

In an executive order on Monday, Trump called for the creation of an "Iron Dome for America" to counter ballistic and hypersonic missile threats, reviving parts of a controversial Reagan-era plan nicknamed "Star Wars" that would have placed missile interceptors in space.

"We regard this as yet another confirmation of the US intent to turn space into an arena of armed confrontation and to deploy weapons there," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing.

Zakharova said the plan would expand Washington's missile deterrence to a scale "comparable to Reagan's Star Wars", which she called "odious".

She said the move was primarily aimed at "devaluing Russian and Chinese strategic deterrence capabilities".

"To put it mildly, these US approaches will not contribute to reducing tensions," she said.

The "Iron Dome" in Trump's decree refers to a highly successful system employed by Israel to down short-range rockets.

Washington faces various missile threats from adversaries, but they differ significantly from the short-range weapons that Israel's Iron Dome is designed to counter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last year unveiled a new hypersonic missile nicknamed "Oreshnik", a weapon that experts believe flies at 10 times the speed of sound.

The United States said in its 2022 National Defense Strategy that Beijing is also closing the gap with Washington when it comes to ballistic and hypersonic missile technology.

Both Moscow and Washington have traded accusations of weaponising space in recent years.

The United States accused Russia last May of deploying a "space weapon" into the same orbit as a US satellite.