Latest news with #FractionalOrbitalBombardmentSystem
The Print
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Print
All about Golden Dome, Trump's $175 billion plan to shield America
First ordered via executive order in January 2025, the system's design is said to counter threats from Russia and China, particularly emerging capabilities such as hypersonic glide vehicles and the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS), systems that are considered too fast and complex for the existing ballistic missile defence (BMD) networks to neutralise. 'This is our national Iron Dome, but on a much grander scale,' Trump said Wednesday at a press briefing at the Oval Office, referencing Israel's short-range missile defence system. 'It will protect our homeland from threats no matter where they originate, even from space.' New Delhi: US President Donald Trump formally unveiled the concept of his administration's $175 billion 'Golden Dome' missile defence system, aimed at shielding America from aerial threats, including hypersonic weapons and space-launched projectiles. At a press briefing in the White House, Trump said that the U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein would lead the programme. 'Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they're launched from space,' Trump said, adding that it is projected to be fully operational by the end of his current term in January, 2029. The Elon Musk-led SpaceX is reportedly among the leading contenders for major contracts under the mega project. Canada, he said, had expressed interest in joining. A statement from the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed ongoing talks with Washington to enhance the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the binational U.S.-Canada aerospace command responsible for air defence across North America. Trump also went on to compare Golden Dome to Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly dubbed 'Star Wars', which was shelved due to technological limitations in the 1980s. 'Reagan wanted this, but we now have the technology to make it real,' Trump added. Earlier this month, both Russia and China slammed the project as 'destabilising', warning that it could trigger a new arms race and turn space into a battlefield. The same month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Golden Dome could cost as much as $831 billion over two decades. Also Read: What is Akashteer & why it's dubbed as 'hell for Pakistan's air adventures' The concept Although inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, the Golden Dome is still in its conceptual phase, but with far greater scope and complexity. It aims to combine existing US missile defence systems with a new generation of space-based and terrestrial weapons. The Golden Dome, according to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, will protect the homeland from 'cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear.' At its core, the Golden Dome is designed as a multi-layered system that integrates low-Earth orbit satellites, radar sensors, kinetic interceptors and potentially even space-borne weapons like laser-based systems. The space-based sensors to be integrated, such as the US Missile Defense Agency's Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS), are already under development and are expected to provide real-time data on incoming missile launches. In terms of interception, the system would use a combination of existing and future assets, working in tandem to provide multiple opportunities to neutralise incoming aerial threats during different phases of flight. An US official had confirmed to the Associated Press that the Pentagon is assessing three levels of capability—medium, high, and 'extra high'—depending on how many interceptors and satellites are deployed. For boost-phase (the missile's earliest stage of flight) intercepts, space-based kill vehicles are envisioned to be employed. The missile shield will include space-based interceptors and sensors. Meanwhile, for the mid-course phase, the US intends to expand its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system at Fort Greely in Alaska, which is already operational with Next-Generation Interceptors (NGIs). The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, deployed aboard Navy ships and Aegis Ashore sites, are also said to provide additional interception during the midcourse and terminal phases using SM-3 and SM-6 missiles. On the ground, systems such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and PAC-3 Patriot batteries will be used to intercept missiles in the terminal stage, when they re-enter the atmosphere or approach their targets. Additionally, the Department of Defense is also reported to be investing in directed-energy weapons like high-powered lasers and microwave systems, which may offer an additional layer of interception in the future. While still in its early stages, Golden Dome is currently backed by an initial $25 billion R&D budget within a broader $175 billion defence proposal submitted to the US Congress. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: How upgraded L/70 guns, or 'original Bofors', became India's frontline defence against Pakistan UAVs
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Business Standard
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
US warns of missile threats that Donald Trump's Golden Dome may face
The DIA released a chart as a prelude to a White House announcement regarding threats to the US that the Golden Dome missile defense umbrella, a priority of President Donald Trump, would counter Bloomberg China may within a decade possess scores of orbiting missiles with nuclear payloads capable of reaching the US with much shorter flight times than traditional intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Defense Intelligence Agency said Tuesday. The agency released a chart as a prelude to a White House announcement regarding threats to the US that the Golden Dome missile defense umbrella, a priority of President Donald Trump, would counter. The chart depicted potential advancements in increased traditional intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities among adversaries, including China, Iran and Russia. China, according to the chart, could field as many as 700 nuclear-tipped ICBMs by 2035 up from 400 today; Iran 60, up from none today. Russia's inventory could grow to 400 from 350 now. More significantly, the chart showed the potential growth in China and less in Russia of orbiting, nuclear-armed space-based missiles in a 'Fractional Orbital Bombardment System,' or FOBS. The weapon enters 'a low-altitude orbit before reentering to strike its target, with much shorter flight times if flying the same direction as traditional ICBMs, or can travel over the South Pole to avoid early warning systems and missile defenses,' the agency said. 'It releases its payload before completing a full orbit.' DIA projected China could possess 60 of these weapons by 2035 from none today, and Russia 12 from zero today. The disclosure in 2021 that China executed a FOBS test flight set off alarms within the US military. 'What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a weapon system. And it is very concerning,' Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an October 2021 interview on Bloomberg Television. 'I don't know if it's quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it's very close to that. It has all of our attention.' Separately, the DIA chart forecast that China might field by 2035 as many as 4,000 'Hypersonic Glide Vehicles,' up from 600 today. The vehicles are launched by ballistic missiles and glide for at least half of their flight to targets. They can be armed with a nuclear warhead, but China may already 'have deployed a conventional' weapon 'with sufficient range to strike Alaska,' according to the chart. As of now, the Defense Department and White House have offered few specifics regarding the Golden Dome's architecture, timelines and cost. 'No one has really defined what the Golden Dome is,' Representative Ken Calvert, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said in an interview last week. 'Is it defending the entire Lower 48 and Alaska? What are we doing and how are we doing it? I've heard from every consultant in town that's trying to get in the middle of this thing.' The US may have to spend as much as $542 billion over 20 years to develop and launch the least proven and likely most contentious segment of the system — the network of space-based interceptors, the Congressional Budget Office said last week. That network could cost $161 billion even at the low end, the office said in an assessment prepared for a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The price tag will depend on launch costs and the number of weapons put into orbit, it said. Trump's plan harkens back to former President Ronald Reagan's unfulfilled quest for a space-based missile defense system that was widely known as 'Star Wars.'
