WASHINGTON — President Trump is heading to the Pentagon on Thursday morning to announce what the White House has billed as a “Missile Defense Review” at 11 a.m. He will be accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, John R. Bolton, the White House national security adviser, and other senior members of his administration.

Here’s what he’s going to say:

Mr. Trump is expected to announce the administration’s plans to expand American missile defenses, with new investments in missile-defense technologies. The goal is to bolster the nation’s defenses against new strides in nuclear arms and missiles in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China and other potentially hostile states. The document that Mr. Trump will unveil, known as the Missile Defense Review, was originally planned for release last year, but was delayed. The changes mark the first update to the policy since a 2010 review by the Obama administration.

Here’s some background on that:

The gargantuan effort to shield the nation from missile strikes is often said to start with President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program that began in 1983. Over the decades, the United States has spent more than $300 billion on the antimissile goal, according to Stephen I. Schwartz, a military cost expert.

The program is costly because the technical aim is so difficult. Warheads fired by intercontinental missiles zip along at more than four miles a second. The military, notwithstanding much effort, has found it extraordinarily difficult to destroy the speeding targets.

Currently, the nation’s antimissile corps relies on a relatively simple approach that uses ground-based interceptors. They race skyward and release speeding projectiles meant to destroy incoming warheads by force of impact — what experts call hitting a bullet with a bullet.

The method has demonstrated fair performance against short-range threats, which move relatively slowly. In 2004, the Bush administration began deploying a bullet-on-bullet system in Alaska and California to defend against North Korean warheads.

Since then, the system has undergone 10 costly flight tests against mock warheads. Five of the tests failed, giving it an overall success rate of 50 percent. The most recent test, in May 2017, successfully smashed the mock target to smithereens.

Russia has emerged as perhaps the greatest threat as it develops a range of next-generation missile systems. In 2014, Washington formally accused Moscow of breaching an arms treaty by developing and deploying a prohibited weapon.

Although Russia has consistently denied any violation, the Trump administration told Moscow in October that it is leaving the landmark treaty.

The riddle behind the developments is how to find the most secure balance for the nation between arms-control treaties and antimissile weapons. The Trump administration is moving rapidly to put new emphasis on unilateral defense.

Mr. Trump’s visit to the Pentagon lands at an awkward moment.

Congress is questioning his decision to withdraw all American troops from Syria, a move that even Republican allies like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have said would “will lead to devastating consequences for our nation, the region, and throughout the world.”

Mr. Trump’s appearance at the Pentagon will also be his first since the former defense secretary, Jim Mattis, resigned from the administration in a rebuke of Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria. Mr. Mattis’ departure sent shock waves across the globe and through his department. Mr. Trump has yet to nominate a permanent replacement. Patrick M. Shanahan, the former deputy defense secretary, is serving in the role on an acting basis.

Mr. Trump's request for more money for missiles also comes in the midst of the longest government shutdown in history, as 800,000 federal workers have not been paid in almost four weeks, and the president has no immediate plans to end the political standoff with Democrats on the Hill.

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