The launch of the American missile shield project "Golden Dome" announced last night by US President Donald Trump is one of the main topics today in the Western press. The multi-billion dollar system will use satellites and space-based weapons to intercept ballistic missile attacks against the United States, the American newspaper "Washington Post" points out.
Trump has been talking about such a shield for months, citing as an argument the threat of the increasingly tangible technical modernization of the means of attacks by countries such as Russia, China and North Korea, the publication notes.
"Once fully built, the "Golden Dome" will be able to intercept missiles launched from other parts "We're going to have the best system ever built," Trump said in the Oval Office with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, quoted by the Washington Post. He then called the chosen project a "game-changer," the publication added.
According to Trump, the system chosen by his administration could be operational within three years, that is, before the end of his second term, the Washington Post emphasized. The US Congressional Budget Committee has estimated that deploying and operating the space-based interceptors alone could cost between $161 billion and $542 billion over the next two decades, the publication noted. According to yesterday's statement, the US president expects the cost of the firewall to be $175 billion and has already allocated $25 billion in the budget bill that the Republican Party is trying to push through. parliament.
Trump, who created the US Space Force during his first term, has long said he wants to create a "Golden Dome", similar to Israel's "Iron Dome" but with weapons based in space, not just on the ground, recalls "The Washington Post". Shortly after taking office again in January, Trump signed an executive order ordering the Pentagon to work on plans for a "next-generation missile defense shield," the newspaper added.
"The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, as well as other air attacks by advanced means, remains the most terrifying to the United States," Trump's executive order said, noting that the official US policy on missile defense has not evolved, the American publication explained.
The Pentagon is still more concerned about the long-range missiles that US adversaries are building. Last week, the US Department of Defense's intelligence service published an estimate that China has about 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles, Russia - with 350, North Korea - with an unspecified small number, lists the "Washington Post". These numbers are expected to grow in the coming years, as Iran also seeks to use such weapons, the assessment quoted by the newspaper said.
"Golden Dome" will be designed for hypersonic weapons and partial orbital bombardment systems that can launch warheads from space, notes the Portuguese newspaper "Diario de Noticias". "They will all be shot down in the air. The success rate is very close to 100 percent," Trump was quoted as saying by the publication, adding that Canada will join the project.
"This is very important for the success and even the survival of our country. The outside world is very cruel", the US president said, quoted by the Portuguese publication.
All proposals generally combine the ground-based missile interceptors currently used by the US military with more ambitious and high-tech systems to build a space defense program, notes the British newspaper "The Guardian". The $25 billion included in the Republican budget proposal is intended only to cover the initial development costs, the publication emphasizes.
The project is expected to be largely a partnership with major defense contractors, including Elon Musk's "SpaceX" company, which has the capacity to manufacture rockets to put military cargo into orbit and satellites that can deliver next-generation surveillance and targeting tools, the Guardian describes. The program will also rely on companies that produce ammunition currently used by the US military, the British newspaper adds.
When Trump announced the signing of his decree to develop an "American "Iron Dome" in January, Russia and China criticized it, the French newspaper "Monde" noted. Moscow described it as a plan "comparable to "Star Wars", supported by then-US President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, the publication recalls.