The United States has announced the largest air and space defense program in recent decades, the “Golden Dome” or Golden Dome. The Golden Dome has fantastic capabilities but also astronomical costs.
Golden Dome wants to confront Russia and China
Commenting on the US military’s “Golden Dome” program to create a comprehensive air defense system for the continental part of the country, the head of the project, Deputy Chief of Space Operations of the US Space Force, General Michael A. Gateline, revealed details about the reasons for such a large-scale investment.
“Our adversaries have become very capable and determined to threaten our homeland,” warned Michael A. Gateline. “Our adversaries are rapidly modernizing their nuclear forces, building ballistic missiles with multiple warheads, developing hypersonic weapons that can reach the United States in an hour at speeds of 6,000 mph, cruise missiles that can evade our radar and air defenses, submarines that can stealthily approach our shores, and, worst of all, space-based weapons.”
Satellites Enter the Game
In response, the Golden Dome program envisions integrating satellites and other space-based technologies with ground and sea-based sensors, anti-aircraft missile launchers, and electronic warfare systems to counter a variety of threats.
US President Trump also spoke about further plans for the program on May 20, stressing that “this is extremely important to the success and even survival of the United States.” “The world is a dangerous place, and this system is a step towards saving a great America,” Trump said.
Golden Dome to be integrated into existing defense systems
“The Golden Dome concept will be integrated into existing defense systems and should be fully operational before the end of my term,” Trump continued. According to the US President, “in its full configuration, the dome will be able to intercept missiles even if they are launched from the other side of the world – or even from space.”
Trump promised that the system would be “a next-generation, high-tech platform spanning land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors.”
Reagan’s plan 40 years late
In closing, he said, “We will finally complete the work that President Reagan began 40 years ago, ending the missile threat to America forever.” The discussion was about the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was announced in 1983.
The Cold War-era program cost the Pentagon billions of dollars, but it did not come close to providing complete defense against large-scale ballistic attacks.
Its cost was estimated at $69.1 billion and $145.7 billion (with current inflation, between $210 billion and $443 billion), with further stages requiring even more funds.
The Golden Dome is designed to protect US territory from hypersonic weapons, ballistic and cruise missiles, and drones.
These are “threats that the country’s current defenses cannot address – they are too fragmented, limited in range, and lacking in technology.”
Cost from $831 billion to $1 trillion
Although Trump claims the system will be ready in less than three years, the feasibility of the project remains in question, as does Congress’s willingness to allocate funds for its development.
The Congressional Budget Office had previously estimated the potential cost of the Golden Dome at $831 billion over the next 20 years. A more conservative estimate from the Chief of Space Operations, General B. Chance Saltzman, is over $500 billion.
There is a strong possibility that, even if funds are made available, budget overruns will make the project unaffordable, preventing the implementation of the declared large-scale protection.
Current U.S. air defenses are incapable of meeting international threats
Currently, the U.S. missile defense system is considered incapable of stopping a thermonuclear attack from any of the three potential adversaries with intercontinental-range arsenals: China, Russia, and North Korea.
All three countries have introduced hypersonic systems with nuclear warheads into their arsenals, making interception almost impossible, although North Korea has yet to install such warheads on missiles capable of reaching the United States.
The implementation of the declared capabilities of Golden Dome would radically change the extremely limited capabilities of current American air defenses, especially in the field of missile defense.
However, the scale of the area to be protected, the size of the adversaries’ nuclear arsenals, and the enormous complexity of intercepting hypersonic targets, along with the usual high cost of such programs, call into question the viability of the project.
