US President Donald Trump has chosen a design for his "Golden Dome" missile defence system and appointed a head of the ambitious $175 billion defence programme, Reuters reported.
How will it work?
Warheads raining down from beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Faster-than-sonic cruise missiles are hitting US infrastructure. Nuclear explosions in the sky… These are just some of the nightmare scenarios that experts warn could come true if the US's outdated and limited defence systems are overwhelmed by a future high-tech attack, the BBC said.
Even a single, relatively small nuclear detonation hundreds of kilometres above Americans' heads would create an electromagnetic pulse - or EMP - that would have apocalyptic consequences. Planes would fall from the sky over the entire country. Everything from portable electronics and medical devices to water supply systems would be rendered completely useless.
In response to these hypothetical - but according to experts entirely possible - threats, US President Donald Trump has set his sights on a “next-generation“ missile shield – "Golden Dome".
But while many experts agree that building such a system is necessary, its high cost and logistical complexity will make Trump's mission to strengthen America's missile defenses extremely difficult.
The creation of "Golden Dome" has also raised concerns that it could lead to a new "arms race", with US enemies preparing to find ways to overcome or circumvent Washington's defense program.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, for example, told reporters that the plan "increases the risk of space becoming a battlefield.".
Those involved in studying worst-case scenarios and US defense policy downplay these concerns. Potential adversaries, they say, are already investing heavily in offensive capabilities.
The big new goal is for "Golden Dome" to use a network of hundreds of satellites orbiting the globe, with sophisticated sensors and interceptors, to destroy incoming enemy missiles after they take off, from countries such as China, Iran, North Korea or Russia, Reuters reported.
In April, the Pentagon asked defense contractors to design and build a network to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles during the "acceleration phase" immediately after takeoff - the slow and predictable climb of an enemy missile through the Earth's atmosphere. Existing defense systems target enemy missiles only halfway through their journey through space.
The idea and new capability is that once a missile is detected, "Golden Dome" will either shoot it down before it enters space, using an interceptor or laser, or neutralize it shortly after it enters space. Another new idea in the plan is to add additional defenses on U.S. soil. The plan, presented by the Pentagon to industry in August and first reported by Reuters, reveals that in addition to the space-based interception layer, the system would have three more ground-based layers. According to the Pentagon presentation, the existing missile defense system, called Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GBMD), which uses ground-based interceptors located in California and Alaska, would be enhanced to create the second layer. The concept, presented in August, also included a third layer consisting of five ground-based launch sites designed to intercept incoming missiles while they are still in space. Three of the five sites will be located in the continental United States, while the other two will be in Hawaii and Alaska.
The fourth interceptor layer will be designed for "limited area defense" to protect populated areas. The concept includes new radars, an all-new "common" launcher that will launch current and future interceptors, and could include the existing Patriot missile defense system. They will work together to defeat all types of threats, such as hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles, the Pentagon said.
“I promised the American people that I would build the most advanced missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack,“ Trump said when he made the announcement in May.
Is the US's "Golden Dome" similar to Israel's "Iron Dome"?
"We helped Israel with their system and it was very successful, and now we have technology that is even more advanced than that," Trump said, referring to Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system.
The short-range "Iron Dome" air defense system was designed to intercept the types of rockets fired by the Palestinian group "Hamas" in Gaza, Reuters recalls.
Developed by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with support from the United States, it entered service in 2011. It consists of a radar that detects the launch of a rocket or projectile, a control center for calculating the trajectory and mobile launchers for interceptor missiles.
The system determines whether the rocket is about to hit a populated area; if not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.
Initially, the "Iron Dome" system was announced as providing city-sized coverage against rockets with a range of between 4 and 70 km, but according to experts, this range has subsequently been expanded.
Is there a resemblance to "Star Wars" President Reagan?
"We are truly going to finish the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago by ending the missile threat to the American homeland forever," Trump said in May, Reuters noted.
The idea of putting missile launchers or lasers on satellites so they can shoot down enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is not new. It is part of the "Star Wars" initiative developed during Ronald Reagan's presidency. But it represents a huge and expensive technological leap compared to it.
"The "Strategic Defense Initiative" Reagan’s (ISO), as it was called, was announced in 1983 as a groundbreaking study of a national defense system that could make nuclear weapons redundant.
At the heart of ISO was a plan to develop a space-based missile defense program that could protect the United States from a large-scale nuclear attack. The proposal included multi-layered technologies that would allow the United States to automatically identify and destroy large numbers of incoming ballistic missiles during launch, during flight, and as they approached their targets. ISO failed because it was too expensive, too technologically ambitious, could not be easily tested, and appeared to violate the existing Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Who will build the "Golden Dome"?
Owned by Trump’s one-time ally – Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX had emerged as the frontrunner, along with software firm Palantir (PLTR.O) and drone maker Anduril, to build key components of the system.
Many of the early systems are expected to come from existing production lines. Participants in the White House press conference with Trump named L3Harris Technologies LHX.N, Lockheed Martin LMT.N and RTX Corp RTX.N as potential contractors for the massive project.
L3 has invested $150 million in building its new plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it produces space-based sensor satellites for hypersonic and ballistic tracking, which are part of the Pentagon's efforts to better detect and track hypersonic weapons using space-based sensors and could be adapted for "Golden Dome".
But financing for the massive project remains uncertain. Republican lawmakers have proposed an initial investment of $25 billion for it as part of a broader $150 billion defense package, but that funding is tied to a controversial reconciliation bill that has faced significant obstacles in Congress.
First test of "Golden Dome" scheduled
In any case, the Pentagon has already scheduled the first major test of the multibillion-dollar "Golden Dome" missile defense system. just before the 2028 election, according to two sources familiar with the matter, setting a hard deadline for the military to prove it can make President Donald Trump's vision of a space shield that could protect the entire United States a reality, CNN reported.
The timeline aligns with Trump's May pledge to "do it in three years."
"Once fully built, the Golden Dome will be able to intercept missiles even if they're launched from other parts of the world," he said at the time.
Missile tests are typically planned well in advance, one of the sources, a Pentagon official, told CNN. But the timing of the test, currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2028, also suggests that "they want a victory to claim in November [2028]," the official said. "And the Department of Defense wants to avoid anything that they think will slow them down."
The Department of Defense plans to call the test FTI-X, the source said. "FTI" is an abbreviation for Flight Test Integrated, indicating that the test will involve multiple sensors and weapons systems of "Golden Dome" working together to engage multiple targets.
Space Force General Michael Gatlin, who was tapped by Trump in May to lead the development of "Golden Dome", hinted at the challenge in remarks at a space industry summit.