US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) announced new details about his administration’s 175 billion massive missile defense initiative, “Golden Dome”, given that it would be completely operational in less than three years, as stated by Hill.
According to The Hill, Trump while speaking from the Oval Office said that the US had finalized the architecture of the system, which would be maintained by the Deputy Principal of Space Operations General Michael Guitlin.
Trump claimed that the defense shield would be originally integrated with the current capabilities and will be completed before the end of its second term.
“This design for Golden Dome will be integrated with our current defense capabilities and should be completely turned on before the end of my tenure. So we have done it in about three years,” Trump said.
He said, “Once fully constructed, the Golden Dom will be able to intercept the missiles, even if they are launched from other aspects of the world and even if they are launched from space, and we will have the best system so far,” he said.
Trump also said that Canada has shown interest in joining the initiative and expressed openness for cooperation.
During the announcement, Trump was included by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and GOP Senator Dan Sullivan, Jim Banks and Kevin Craermer. As reported by the hill, they were a golden shield over the US and an quotation, “This is a very dangerous world,” was flicked by the poster.
According to the hill, the Golden Dome, initially declared in January, would receive an initial USD 25 billion allocation under a GOP -backed reconciliation bill.
However, funding between resistance from both conservative and medium Republicans is uncertain that are insisting on changing law.
Although Trump claimed that the total cost would be US $ 175 billion, the Congress budget office has estimated that, due to its technical complexity, the complete system could exceed the USD 500 billion in the next two decades.
The system expects nations like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to combat intercontinental threats.
Democrats have raised moral concerns about Elon Musk’s possible participation of SpaceX, cited as his advisory role in Trump administration and possible conflicts of interest, Hill said.
Trump has mentioned several states that are likely to participate in the program, including Alaska, Florida, Georgia and Indiana, each with defense or space infrastructure. Potential contractors may include Lockheed Martin, Retheon and L3harris technologies.
The project will be made entirely in the US, Trump said that it would be modeling after Israeli’s Iron Dome, although scaling to combat long distance hazards.
While critics argue that there are already strong missile rescues in the US, such as air defense systems such as interceptor and terminal high altitude area defense and sense of terminal high altitude area defense, Trump said that Golden Dome would add an important new layer of security.
Trump also said that the “Golden Dome” initiative was something that Ronald Reagan, 40th US President and a Republican would like. He further reiterated the promise of their campaign to American people to make such missile defense shields to protect them from foreign threats.
“Ronald Reagan (40th US President) wanted many years ago, but he did not have technology. But it’s something we are going to do. We are going to keep it at the highest level … In the campaign, in the campaign, I promised American people that I would build a universal missile defense shield to save my motherland from foreign missile attack. (AI)