Trump’s Golden Dome Defense Project Could Space Arms Race

US President Donald Trump has proposed a defense project, called the Golden Dome, to intercept all incoming hypersonic, ballistic and advanced cruise missiles threatening the country.

“When fully built, the Golden Dome will be able to capture missiles, even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and although launched from space,” Trump said under the White House, Annou, which began on May 20.

But such a thorough interception system may not be possible. Some experts also warn that although it works, the Golden Dome would take at least a decade to build, cost more than half a billion dollars – and speed up the global nuclear weapons and weapons weapons.

What is the golden dome?

The name of the project is inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome system, which uses terrestrial missiles to intercept incoming rockets and artillery fired from relatively short distances. But the golden dome would NEEED defend a much larger area – the land mass of the coherent United States alone is more than 350 times the size of Israel – from a wider range of sophisticated missiles.

According to Trump and his officials, the system must be able to counter ballistic missiles that could be launched from the other side of the world, advanced cruise missiles flying on flatter lane at lower heights and hypersonic missiles that can fly and maneuver in speeds exceeding Mach 5, five times the sound speed. These missiles can carry EITH -nuclear war heads or conventional explosive contests.

To discover and intercept the threads, the Golden Dome will use booth “space-based sensors and air and missile defense,” US defense secretary Pete Hegeth said in a statement. It involves an umbrella system of the “Golden Domest” with different technologies that counteract different threats, says David Burbach at Naval War College in Rhode Island, who shared some comments with New scientist In a personal capacity.

However, not all of these are found. For example, the Golden Dome would allegedly use space-based Interceptor missiles in Low Earth Orbit, a hitherto technological achievement that has never been demonstrated before, says Thomas González Roberts at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

A similar idea called Star Wars was originally proposed by US President Ronald Reagan in his strategic defense initiative during the Cold War. In fact, Trump has been described the Golden Dome as an attempt to complete “the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago”.

How does the golden dome work?

Missile defense experts describe the challenge of capturing long-rise nuclear missiles such as being like “beating a bullet with a bullet, in the dark” because “the goals are small and do not emit any radio or infrared signals and rapidly moving,” says Burnbach. “One thing to keep in mind is that even optimistic technical experts admitted 100 per hundred interception are unlikely.”

The United States already has a system of terrestrial interceptor missiles, primarily based in Alaska. They can shoot down “a couple of dozen incoming war heads at best,” says Burbach. He also tiped out that Russia and China are developing County Measures to make it difficult to detect and intercept their missiles.

“Stopping subseonic cruise missiles or short -free ballistic missiles launched just outside US borders would use established technology, but it could be existing to deploy enough of these defensive system to cover the white country,” says Burbach. “The real challenge will be the Golden Domes goal of stopping a large number of intercontinental missiles – President Trump said ‘100 percent’ of them – such as an attack from China or Russia.”

Trump’s claim that the golden dome would defend himself against missile attacks from the other side of the world or even from the room means it would require a “close constellation of probable low-earth circuits, space-based missile courses that could deorbit and minutes of it launched,” Roberts said.

“The number of satellites you need is greater than any constellation ever launched,” he says. Currently, the large constellation consists of about 7,000 Starlink satellites powered by SpaceX.

How much does the golden dome cost?

Trump offers a budget of $ 175 billion to the Golden Dome, although this funding has not yet been approved by the US Congress. And the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partic federal agency, estimated that a space-based intervening system like the Golden Dome could cost as much as $ 542 billion.

“It is unclear what expenses are included in the number of $ 175 billion,” says Patrycja Bazylczyk at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a Washington DC think tank.

Trump also claimed that the golden dome would be “fully operational” at the end of his second period in office in early 2029, though experts doubt it is possible. “The three-year timeline is aggressive-this initiative probably spans at least a decade, if not more,” says Bazylczyk.

Much of the timeline can depend on how many existing military systems it uses. “Significant progress is feasible in the short term, included fielding new interceptors, over-the-horizon radars, space-based sensors and technology demonstrations,” says Bazylczyk.

But there are major restrictions on how fast the United States could launch the potential thousands of satellites required to Golden Dome-to say nothing about developing the space-based interceptor technologies.

“I think you would be very hard pressed to find launch cadence that could support great constellation to go up in just three years,” says Roberts. “SpaceX launches more things more often than one in the story of space operations, and the question here is to crack openly, that Ceven further.”

“I think it’s almost impossible for a system to be ‘fully operational’ in the sense of ‘stop 100 percent of a missile attack’ so quickly,” says Burnbach. “To reach even a small operational capacity that would soon be very difficult.”

Will the Golden Dome make the United States more secure?

There is already an ongoing weapon race between the United States, China and Russia, where all three countries modernize and expand their nuclear arsenals as well as develop space -based system to support their military.

If the Golden Dome system can improve the US Air and Missile Defèmes, it can “change the strategic calculation” by reducing confidence in any missile-armed opponent and deterring them from launching attacks in the first place, Bazylczyk says.

On the other hand, the golden dome has the “potential to contribute to instability” by “signaling to your nuclear opponents that you easily don’t trust them,” Roberts says. China’s Foreign Ministry responded to Trump’s announcement by saying that the golden dome carries “strong offensive implications” and raises the risk of a weapon race in space. A Kremlin spokesman suggested that the golden dome plans could lead to the summary of discussions of nuclear weapons between Russia and the United States.

To counter this system, China and Russia can try to “destroy or disable US satellites,” Burnach says. Both countries already have missiles capable of shooting down satellites, and they can also try to electronally jam or hack US satellite systems, he says. In February 2024, the US government warned that Russia was planning to launch a space weapon capable of disabling or destroying satellites, possible with the help of a nuclear explosion.

These countries could also summarize their missiles and possible development of several maneuver weapons that are also luring, says Burbach. He tipped out that Russia has already begun to develop weapons vulnerable to space -based interception, such as intercontinental nuclear torpedoes traveling underwater.

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