The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has proposed a defense project, called Golden Dome, to intercept any hyperonic, ballistic and advanced cruise missile that threatens the country.
“Once completely built, the Golden Dome will be able to intercept missiles even if they are thrown from other sides of the world and even if they are thrown from space,” said Trump Duration the White’s announcement of the White House on May 20.
But such a complete interception system may not be possible. Some experts also warn that, even if it works, the golden dome would take at least a decade, it would cost more than half a billion dollars, and accelerate the career of global nuclear armaments and the weapons of the space.
What is the golden dome?
The name of the project is inspired by the Iron Dome system in Israel, which uses land missiles to intercept incoming rockets and artillery fired from relatively short distances. But the golden dome would need to defend a much larger area: the adjoining land mass of the United States is more than 350 times the size of Israel, from a broader variety of sophisticated missiles.
According to Trump and its officials, the system should be able to counteract the ballistic missiles that could be launched from the other side of the world, advanced cruise missiles that fly in flatter trajectories in the Lower Caneueueus in Maneueueure five times the speed of sound. These missiles can transport conventional nuclear eyes or ojas.
To detect and intercept threats, Golden Dome will use both “spatial sensors and aerial defense and antimiles,” said the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseeth, in a statement. That implies an umbrella system of “golden domes” with different technologies that counteract different threats, says David Burbach in the Naval War College in Rhode Island, who shared some comments with New scientist In a personal capacity.
However, not all of these defenses exist. For example, the Golden Dome would supposedly use interceptor missiles based on space in the orbit of the Low Earth, an unprecedented technological feat that has never been demonstrated before, says Thomas González Roberts at the Georgia Institute of
A similar idea, nicknamed Star Wars, was originally proposed by the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, in its duration of the Strategic Defense initiative, the Cold War. In fact, Trump described the Golden Dome as an effort to complete “the work that President Reagan began 40 years ago.”
How will the Golden Dome work?
The missile defense experts describe the challenge of intercepting long -range nuclear missiles such as “hitting a bullet with a bullet, in the dark” because “the objectives are small, they do not emit any burbalted signal and move quickly.” “One thing to keep in mind is that equally optimistic technical experts admit an interception of 100 percent is unlikely.”
The United States already has a land interceptor missile system, mainly based in Alaska. They can knock down “a couple of incoming eyelets boxes at best,” says Bubach. He also pointed out that Russia and China are developing countermeasures to hinder detection and intercept their missiles.
“Stop subson cruise missiles or short -range ballistic missiles launched from the borders of the United States would use the established technology, but it could be expensive to deploy enough of those defensive systems to cover.” “” “The real challenge will be the goal of Golden Dome to stop a large number of intercontinental missiles: President Trump said ‘100 percent’ of them, as an attack by China or Russia.”
Trump’s statement that the golden dome would defend himself against missile attacks from the other side of the world or simply from space implies that he would require a “dense constellation missile constellation in low earth and missile orbit in space with the Dorbites or the powerful that will be launched” from anywhere, says Roberts.
“The number of satellites I would need is larger than any constellation that has launched your legs,” he says. Currently, the largest constellation consists of around 7000 Starlink satellites operated by Spacex.
How much will the golden dome cost?
Trump proposes a budget of $ 175 billion for the Golden Dome, although the United States Congress has not yet approved financing. And the Budget Office of the Congress, a non -partisan federal agency, estimated that an interceptor system based on space such as Golden Dome could cost up to $ 542 billion.
“It is not clear what expenses are included in the $ 175 billion figure,” says Patrycja Bazylczyk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a group of experts in Washington DC.
Trump also said that Golden Dome would be “completely operational” at the end of his second term in early 2029, Althehegh’s experts doubt that this is possible. “The three -year timeline is aggressive: this initiative is likely to cover at least a decade, if not more,” says Bazylykk.
Much of the timeline can defend yourself from how many existing military systems use. “Significant progress is feasible in the short term, including new interceptors, radars on the horizon, space sensors and technology demonstrations,” says Bazylczyk.
But there are important limitations for the speed with which the United States could be the thousands of satellites required for the golden dome, not saying anything to develop interceptive technologies based on space.
“I think it would be very difficult to find a launching cadence that can support a great constellation that increases in just three years,” says Roberts. “Spacex launches more things more frequently than anyone in the history of space operations, and the question here is to open that roof even more.”
“I think it is almost impossible for a system to be ‘completely operational’ in the sense of ‘stop 100 percent of a missile attack’ so quickly,” says Bubach. “Achieve a small -scale operational capacity that would soon be very different.”
Will Golden Dome make the United States safer?
There is already an arms race in the United States, China and Russia, with the three countries of modernization and expand its nuclear arsenals, as well as developing space -based systems to support their military.
If the Golden Dome system can improve US air defenses and missiles, it could “change the strategic calculation” by reducing the confidence of any adversary armed with missiles, deterring them from throwing attacks first, says Bazylczyk.
On the other hand, the Golden Dome has the “potential to contribute to instability” by “pointing to its nuclear adversaries that it simply does not trust them,” says Roberts. China’s Foreign Ministry responded to Trump’s announcement saying that Golden Dome leads “strong offensive implications” and increases the risks of an arms race in space. A Kremlin spokesman suggested that Golden Dome’s plans could lead to the resumption of nuclear weapons control discussions between Russia and the United States.
To counteract this system, China and Russia could try to “destroy or disable US satellites,” says Bubach. Both countries already have missiles capable of demolishing satellites, and could also try to electronically click or hack US satellite systems, he says. In February 2024, the US government warned that Russia had plans to launch a space weapon capable or disabled or destroying satellites, possible using a nuclear explosion.
These countries could also increase their missile and possible developing arsenals and develop more maneuverable weapons that also use, Burbach says. He pointed out that Russia has already begun to develop less vulnerable weapons to space -based interception, such as intercontinental nuclear torpedoes that travel underwater.