The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday that he had selected a conception of $ 175 billion for the Golden Dome Multicile Dome Defense Program aimed at countering air threats “even if they have been launched since space”.
As part of the project, the United States would deploy missile interceptors in space to protect ballistic and hypersonic threats.
Here is more on the Golden Dome Project.
What did Trump announce?
Trump announced on Tuesday an initial funding of $ 25 billion for the project which will cost $ 175 billion and will be completed by the end of his current mandate in 2029.
“Once fully built, the Golden Dome will be able to intercept the missiles even if they have been launched from other sides of the world, and even if they have been launched from space,” said Trump.
“It is very important for the success and even the survival of our country.”
Trump also announced that the general of the American space force Michael Guetlein would be the director of the main program, responsible for supervising the progress of the project.
“I promised to the American people that I build a advanced anti -missile defense shield to protect our homeland against the threat of a foreign missile attack,” said Trump.
Trump also announced: “Canada called us, and they want to be part of it. So we’re going to talk to them. “
What is the Golden Dome project?
Trump said that the Dome of Gold had been made to eliminate “hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles”, adding that the program would have interceptors and space sensors.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, speaking alongside Trump, said the system was aimed at protecting “the fatherland of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether conventional or nuclear”.
The announcement comes only a few months after January 27, when Trump signed an executive decree to “immediately start building an anti -missile defense shield at the cutting edge of technology, which will be able to protect the Americans”.
The Iron Dome is the anti -missile defense system of Israel which detects an incoming rocket, determines its path and intercepts it. System development was funded by a subsidy from the United States.
Trump said that existing defense capacities will be used in the construction of the project and that the total cost would be around $ 175 billion.
The White House has not yet published details on the project. While Trump said the system would be developed in the United States, he did not name which companies will be involved.
A space defense system was first envisaged by Ronald Reagan, the American Republican President from 1981 to 1989. In the middle of the Cold War, Reagan proposed a barrier to nuclear weapons which included space technology, as part of his strategic defense initiative, or Star Wars Project.
“We will really end the work that President Reagan started 40 years ago, ending the threat of missiles for the American homeland,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Is the dome of the golden dome possible?
Industry experts questioned the schedule and budget of the plan.
The financing of the Golden Dome has not yet been obtained. At Tuesday’s press conference Trump confirmed that he was looking for $ 25 billion for the system in a bill on a tax reduction which was currently moving through the congress, although this sum could be reduced among the negotiations in progress.
In addition, a certain variation is expected in the total cost of the project. The Associated Press quoted an anonymous government official saying that Trump had received three versions of the plan, described as “medium”, “high” and “additional”. These versions correspond to the number of satellites, sensors and interceptors that will be placed in space. AP reported that Trump had chosen the “high” version, which has an initial cost varying between $ 30 billion and $ 100 billion.
“The new data point is 175 billion dollars, but the question remains, over what time of time. It is probably 10 years,” Tom Karako, Department of Defense and Security Department, said Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), at the Reuters press agency.
On May 1, 42 Democratic members of the US Congress signed a letter questioning the possible implication of SpaceX from Elon Musk, which is among the best technological companies seeking to build key components of the golden dome.
“If Mr. Musk was to exert an inappropriate influence on the contract of the Dome of the Gold, it would be another example of a disturbing scheme of Mr. Musk flouting the rules of conflict of interest,” said the letter.
How did China and Russia – the biggest rivals in the United States – reacted?
The United States sees a growing threat from China and Russia, its main opponents.
In recent decades, China has considerably advanced its ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, while Moscow has one of the most advanced intercontinental missile systems in the world. Russia and the United States have raised the largest nuclear warhead arsenals in the world.
The threat of drones has also increased in the midst of technological progress.
China denounced the Golden Dome as a threat to international security and accused the United States of prompting an arms race.
“The United States put its own interests first and is obsessed with the search for its own absolute security, which violates the principle that no security in the country should be done to the detriment of others,” said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, in a regular briefing.
“(The plan) increases the risk that space becoming a battlefield, feeds an arms race and undermines international security,” he said.
The Kremlin said that the Golden Dome missile shield plan was a “sovereign matter” for the United States.
“This is a sovereign question for the United States. If the United States believes that there is a threat of missile, then of course, it will develop an anti-missile defense system,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, including AFP.
“This is what all countries do,” he added.
“Of course, in the foreseeable future, the course of events will require the resumption of contacts to restore strategic stability,” he said.
