This is all better than nothing, but the NASA approach is a waste of money. However, this is part of promoting the wasteful Lunar Gateway program. Lunar Gateway is going to cost $100+ billion. It is using the International Space Station (ISS) style technology to build a space station orbiting the moon. It is better to waste money on space and get more space capability than it is to waste money on the military.

About 30 space shuttle launches were used to add components and modules to assemble the ISS. The Lunar Gateway looks like it will be built from about ten modules.

We could do a lot better in space and spend less money and get results sooner. We could use a few SpaceX Falcon Heavies and land directly on the moon with about 8 to 11 tons of moon base at a time. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy is flying now.