New Delhi:
Donald Trump has vowed to construct a ‘Golden Dome‘ – similar to Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence – as he build :”the most powerful military of the future”. The first step, he told a joint sitting of the United States Congress is to fund a “state-of-the-art missile shield to protect our homeland”.
Trump – who made a raft of eyebrow-raising declarations, many of which were fact-checked by American media and found to be false or incomplete, including comments about the price of eggs under his predecessor, Joe Biden – was referring to a shield against ballistic missiles, while are among the most complicated weapons systems to design, develop, and operationalise.
He claimed Ronald Reagan, the 40th US President, who served from 1981 to 1989, wanted to build a similar system but lacked the technology to do so. “Israel and other places have it… and the US should too,” he said, “This is a very dangerous world. We’re going to protect our citizens like never before.”
Trump may have been referring to the Strategic Defense Initiative, announced in 1983 by Reagan to defend against Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles by intercepting and shooting them down. Plans for the system included space-based ‘laser’ weapons to track the missiles.
There were significant technological and even ethical challenges to the programme, which was eventually rendered obsolete after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
A ballistic missile defence shield consists of interlocked systems designed to detect, track, and intercept incoming ballistic weapons at various stages of flight – boost, midcourse, terminal.
The goal, though, is simple – to detect and shoot down a missile before it hits a target.
Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’. What’s In It?
To begin with, the Space-Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, aids detection of missiles and aerial threats. This is accomplished by relying on SBIRS satellites for early warning of missile launches, and paired with a host of ground-based radars. Without these, detecting the launch of an incoming ballistic missile becomes almost impossible.
Space-Based Infrared System
The Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, is the backbone of the US’ defence against intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The GMD uses ground-based interceptors deployed at locations in Alaska and California to stop missiles during their midcourse phase.
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, or BMD, is a sea- and land-based system that employs warships to engage short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, is a mobile, land-based system that intercepts short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. The THAAD uses hit-to-kill technology; i.e., how defensive missiles collide head-on with incoming threats to destroy them.
The THAAD system, incidentally, is also in Israel; in December last year it was used to intercept a ballistic missile reportedly fired from Yemen by the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group.
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense
A standard THAAD battery includes six truck-mounted launchers with up to eight interceptors each, a radar that can detect threats up to 3,000km away, and a fire control system.
For shorter range ballistic missiles and other air threats in the terminal phase, the US relies on the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, interceptor missiles. These are also part of a plan to counter possible deployment of Chinese hypersonic weapons in the Pacific region.
Patriot Advanced Capability-3
Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’
Development of the Israeli version – operation of which was on TV news channels at the height of Tel Aviv’s war on Hamas and Hezbollah – began in 2007. It was up and running by 2011.
VIDEO | Israel’s Air Defence System In Action To Intercept Iranian Missiles
This is a multi-tiered system with the ‘Iron Dome’ at the heart. The other layers are ‘David’s Sling’ for mid- to long-range missiles, and Arrow-2 and Arrow-3, which shoot down long-range ballistic missiles.
The United States funded roughly half of the annual development costs of the Arrow 2 system. By 2020, the total US. financial contribution toward the Arrow Weapon System exceeded $3.7 billion.
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