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Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Golden Dome: Everything to know about Trump's $25 billion missile defense plan
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. President Donald Trump announced a plan to build a missile defense system, called the Golden Dome, on May 20, 2025. The system is intended to protect the United States from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, and missiles launched from space. Trump is calling for the current budget to allocate US$25 billion to launch the initiative, which the government projected will cost $175 billion. He said Golden Dome will be fully operational before the end of his term in three years and will provide close to 100% protection. The Conversation U.S. asked Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineer and director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder, about the Golden Dome plan and the feasibility of Trump's claims. Boyd receives funding for research unrelated to Golden Dome from defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Several countries, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, have been developing missiles over the past few years that challenge the United States' current missile defense systems. These weapons include updated ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, and new hypersonic missiles. They have been specifically developed to counter America's highly advanced missile defense systems such as the Patriot and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System. For example, the new hypersonic missiles are very high speed, operate in a region of the atmosphere where nothing else flies and are maneuverable. All of these aspects combined create a new challenge that requires a new, updated defensive approach. Russia has fired hypersonic missiles against Ukraine in the ongoing conflict. China parades its new hypersonic missiles in Tiananmen Square. So it's reasonable to think that, to ensure the protection of its homeland and to aid its allies, the U.S. may need a new missile defense capability. Related: How do intercontinental ballistic missiles work? Such a defense system requires a global array of geographically distributed sensors that cover all phases of all missile trajectories. First, it is essential for the system to detect the missile threats as early as possible after launch, so some of the sensors must be located close to regions where adversaries may fire them, such as by China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Then, it has to track the missiles along their trajectories as they travel hundreds or thousands of miles. These requirements are met by deploying a variety of sensors on a number of different platforms on the ground, at sea, in the air and in space. Interceptors are placed in locations that protect vital U.S. assets and usually aim to engage threats during the middle portion of the trajectory between launch and the terminal dive. The U.S. already has a broad array of sensors and interceptors in place around the world and in space primarily to protect the U.S. and its allies from ballistic missiles. The sensors would need to be expanded, including with more space-based sensors, to detect new missiles such as hypersonic missiles. The interceptors would need to be enhanced to enable them to address hypersonic weapons and other missiles and warheads that can maneuver. Intercepting hypersonic missiles specifically involves several steps. First, as explained above, a hostile missile must be detected and identified as a threat. Second, the threat must be tracked along all of its trajectory due to the ability of hypersonic missiles to maneuver. Third, an interceptor missile must be able to follow the threat and get close enough to it to disable or destroy it. The main new challenge here is the ability to track the hypersonic missile continuously. This requires new types of sensors to detect hypersonic vehicles and new sensor platforms that are able to provide a complete picture of the hypersonic trajectory. As described, Golden Dome would use the sensors in a layered approach in which they are installed on a variety of platforms in multiple domains, including ground, sea, air and space. These various platforms would need to have different types of sensors that are specifically designed to track hypersonic threats in different phases of their flight paths. These defensive systems will also be designed to address weapons fired from space. Much of the infrastructure will be multipurpose and able to defend against a variety of missile types. In terms of time frame for deployment, it is important to note that Golden Dome will build from the long legacy of existing U.S. missile defense systems. Another important aspect of Golden Dome is that some of the new capabilities have been under active development for years. In some ways, Golden Dome represents the commitment to actually deploy systems for which considerable progress has already been made. Israel's Iron Dome air defense system has been described as the most effective system of its kind anywhere in the world. But even Iron Dome is not 100% effective, and it has also been overwhelmed on occasion by Hamas and others who fire very large numbers of inexpensive missiles and rockets at it. So it is unlikely that any missile defense system will ever provide 100% protection. The more important goal here is to achieve deterrence, similar to the stalemate in the Cold War with the Soviet Union that was based on nuclear weapons. All of the new weapons that Golden Dome will defend against are very expensive. The U.S. is trying to change the calculus in an opponent's thinking to the point where they will consider it not worth shooting their precious high-value missiles at the U.S. when they know there is a high probability of them not reaching their targets. That seems to me like a very aggressive timeline, but with multiple countries now operating hypersonic missiles, there is a real sense of urgency. Existing missile defense systems on the ground, at sea and in the air can be expanded to include new, more capable sensors. Satellite systems are beginning to be put in place for the space layer. Sensors have been developed to track the new missile threats. Putting all of this highly complex system together, however, is likely to take more than three years. At the same time, if the U.S. fully commits to Golden Dome, a significant amount of progress can be made in this time. President Trump is requesting a total budget for all defense spending of about $1 trillion in 2026. So, $25 billion to launch Golden Dome would represent only 2.5% of the total requested defense budget. Of course, that is still a lot of money, and a lot of other programs will need to be terminated to make it possible. But it is certainly financially achievable. RELATED STORIES —North Korea launches intercontinental ballistic missile to space, reaches record altitude —Stealth destroyer 1st to carry hypersonic missiles that travel 5 times the speed of sound — with testing imminent —Chinese scientists reveal plans for near-invisible stealth missiles that could 'redefine modern warfare' Similar to Iron Dome, Golden Dome will consist of sensors and interceptor missiles but will be deployed over a much wider geographical region and for defense against a broader variety of threats in comparison with Iron Dome. A second-generation Golden Dome system in the future would likely use directed energy weapons such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves to destroy missiles. This approach would significantly increase the number of shots that defenders can take against ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles. This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Golden Dome: An aerospace engineer explains the proposed nationwide missile defense system
President Donald Trump announced a plan to build a missile defense system, called the Golden Dome, on May 20, 2025. The system is intended to protect the United States from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, and missiles launched from space. Trump is calling for the current budget to allocate US$25 billion to launch the initiative, which the government projected will cost $175 billion. He said Golden Dome will be fully operational before the end of his term in three years and will provide close to 100% protection. The Conversation U.S. asked Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineer and director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder, about the Golden Dome plan and the feasibility of Trump's claims. Boyd receives funding for research unrelated to Golden Dome from defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Several countries, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, have been developing missiles over the past few years that challenge the United States' current missile defense systems. These weapons include updated ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, and new hypersonic missiles. They have been specifically developed to counter America's highly advanced missile defense systems such as the Patriot and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System. For example, the new hypersonic missiles are very high speed, operate in a region of the atmosphere where nothing else flies and are maneuverable. All of these aspects combined create a new challenge that requires a new, updated defensive approach. Russia has fired hypersonic missiles against Ukraine in the ongoing conflict. China parades its new hypersonic missiles in Tiananmen Square. So it's reasonable to think that, to ensure the protection of its homeland and to aid its allies, the U.S. may need a new missile defense capability. Such a defense system requires a global array of geographically distributed sensors that cover all phases of all missile trajectories. First, it is essential for the system to detect the missile threats as early as possible after launch, so some of the sensors must be located close to regions where adversaries may fire them, such as by China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Then, it has to track the missiles along their trajectories as they travel hundreds or thousands of miles. These requirements are met by deploying a variety of sensors on a number of different platforms on the ground, at sea, in the air and in space. Interceptors are placed in locations that protect vital U.S. assets and usually aim to engage threats during the middle portion of the trajectory between launch and the terminal dive. The U.S. already has a broad array of sensors and interceptors in place around the world and in space primarily to protect the U.S. and its allies from ballistic missiles. The sensors would need to be expanded, including with more space-based sensors, to detect new missiles such as hypersonic missiles. The interceptors would need to be enhanced to enable them to address hypersonic weapons and other missiles and warheads that can maneuver. Intercepting hypersonic missiles specifically involves several steps. First, as explained above, a hostile missile must be detected and identified as a threat. Second, the threat must be tracked along all of its trajectory due to the ability of hypersonic missiles to maneuver. Third, an interceptor missile must be able to follow the threat and get close enough to it to disable or destroy it. The main new challenge here is the ability to track the hypersonic missile continuously. This requires new types of sensors to detect hypersonic vehicles and new sensor platforms that are able to provide a complete picture of the hypersonic trajectory. As described, Golden Dome would use the sensors in a layered approach in which they are installed on a variety of platforms in multiple domains, including ground, sea, air and space. These various platforms would need to have different types of sensors that are specifically designed to track hypersonic threats in different phases of their flight paths. These defensive systems will also be designed to address weapons fired from space. Much of the infrastructure will be multipurpose and able to defend against a variety of missile types. In terms of time frame for deployment, it is important to note that Golden Dome will build from the long legacy of existing U.S. missile defense systems. Another important aspect of Golden Dome is that some of the new capabilities have been under active development for years. In some ways, Golden Dome represents the commitment to actually deploy systems for which considerable progress has already been made. Israel's Iron Dome air defense system has been described as the most effective system of its kind anywhere in the world. But even Iron Dome is not 100% effective, and it has also been overwhelmed on occasion by Hamas and others who fire very large numbers of inexpensive missiles and rockets at it. So it is unlikely that any missile defense system will ever provide 100% protection. The more important goal here is to achieve deterrence, similar to the stalemate in the Cold War with the Soviet Union that was based on nuclear weapons. All of the new weapons that Golden Dome will defend against are very expensive. The U.S. is trying to change the calculus in an opponent's thinking to the point where they will consider it not worth shooting their precious high-value missiles at the U.S. when they know there is a high probability of them not reaching their targets. That seems to me like a very aggressive timeline, but with multiple countries now operating hypersonic missiles, there is a real sense of urgency. Existing missile defense systems on the ground, at sea and in the air can be expanded to include new, more capable sensors. Satellite systems are beginning to be put in place for the space layer. Sensors have been developed to track the new missile threats. Putting all of this highly complex system together, however, is likely to take more than three years. At the same time, if the U.S. fully commits to Golden Dome, a significant amount of progress can be made in this time. President Trump is requesting a total budget for all defense spending of about $1 trillion in 2026. So, $25 billion to launch Golden Dome would represent only 2.5% of the total requested defense budget. Of course, that is still a lot of money, and a lot of other programs will need to be terminated to make it possible. But it is certainly financially achievable. Similar to Iron Dome, Golden Dome will consist of sensors and interceptor missiles but will be deployed over a much wider geographical region and for defense against a broader variety of threats in comparison with Iron Dome. A second-generation Golden Dome system in the future would likely use directed energy weapons such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves to destroy missiles. This approach would significantly increase the number of shots that defenders can take against ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Iain Boyd, University of Colorado Boulder Read more: China's hypersonic missiles threaten US power in the Pacific – an aerospace engineer explains how the weapons work and the unique threats they pose Israel's Iron Dome air defense system works well – here's how Hamas got around it Is Russia looking to put nukes in space? Doing so would undermine global stability and ignite an anti-satellite arms race Iain Boyd receives funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed-Martin Corporation, a defense contractor that sells missile defense systems and could potentially benefit from the implementation of Golden Dome.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump's proposed ‘Iron Dome For America' protects homeland
(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump has ordered the implementation of what the White House is calling 'The Iron Dome For America,' which is designed to protect the United States from foreign attacks. The model for the defense system is the Iron Dome, which, since 2011, has been the foundation of Israel's defense system to protect the nation from attacks from Hezbollah, Iran and other neighboring countries. The system is designed to intercept relatively primitive rockets and mortars that travel less than 44 miles. The Iron Dome was 90% effective against ballistic missiles fired at Israel by Iran in October, which has prompted Trump to order the planning of a 'state-of-the-art' missile defense system to be designed in the United States. Iain Boyd, the director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado-Boulder, called the Iron Dome a very effective missile defense system but said that Israel faces a much different level of threats being experienced in the United States. Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump's funding freeze 'Making sure that the homeland is defended against missiles is a very important idea,' Boyd told NewsNation. Boyd said that some forms of missile defense are already in place in the United States. He said that Trump's order for the implementation of a missile defense system will ensure that the existing missile defense system continues to evolve and move forward as foreign threats become more sophisticated. As effective as Israel's Iron Dome is in defending against missiles, it is not designed to handle long-range missiles across an ocean. The system being proposed by Trump would be 425 times larger than Israel. Israel's Iron Dome operates under a system that goes into effect when an enemy rocket is fired. Once that happens, the Iron Dome's radar system detects the missile within seconds and begins to track it. The system's control system estimates the missile's point of impact and then the Iron Dome's launcher fires a missile to intercept it. Finally, the missile explodes near the rocket and destroys it. California denies military 'turned on the water' in state 'The Iron Dome system might make sense if it were deployed around American military bases around the world, particularly in Iraq, where U.S bases have taken missile fire,' geopolitical analyst Steven Terner told NewsNation. 'But the Iron Dome is designed to protect relatively small amounts of areas from short and medium-range missiles, so it would have to be modified to the extent that it would be a completely different system if it were to have any chance of defending mainland United States.' Boyd, the University of Colorado professor, told NewsNation that the Iron Dome for America will bolster the nation's current missile defense system. However, protecting the homeland to this extent will come at a cost. To modify the system, the United States would need to deploy more than 24,700 Iron Dome batteries to defend the continental U.S. at a cost of about $100 million per battery. That makes the cost of the project $2.5 trillion. 'This is probably intended mostly for China,' Boyd said. 'And China has been developing very sophisticated new weapons, hypersonic systems, which means they go very fast, and they do challenge existing missile systems. So I think that what this is really representing is the U.S. saying to China, 'We are going to ensure that our country is safe against these new weapons that you've been developing.'' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
