Latest news with #MelanieMarlowe
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
North Korea slams Trump's ‘Golden Dome' plan: ‘Height of self-righteousness'
North Korea on Tuesday slammed President Trump for his plans to create the Golden Dome missile defense system. Officials in Pyongyang dubbed the effort 'the height of self-righteousness, arrogance, high-handed and arbitrary practice' read a memorandum issued by the Institute for American Studies, according to state media. The country now joins Russia and China in their critique of the United States' outer space defense system, projected by Trump to cost $175 billion. The Golden Dome model is expected to mirror Israel's Iron Dome, intercepting scheduled strikes from near and far in the outer space realm. North Korea's leaders have skirted the idea that the project's development stems from the threat of war but seeks to provoke a nuclear war instead. 'Under the pretext of defending its mainland, it has been hell-bent on building a missile defense system targeting the independent sovereign states including the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]. Clear is the reason why the U.S. is scheming to freeze the so-called 'threat' from sovereign states as a pretext for modernizing its missile defense system, persistently spinning out the time-worn sophism just like a guilty party filing the suit first,' the memorandum read. 'It is to preemptively attain military superiority in an all-round way by justifying its hegemony-oriented moves for space arms buildup and accelerating outer space militarization behind the screen of 'mainland defence' and to launch the military strike at its enemy states at its will by relying on it,' it added. The Trump administration said the system would take three years to build, culminating at the end of the president's second term. However, experts have doubted its completion in the short timeline, suggesting the Golden Dome's development would need significant extensions and bipartisan support. 'We will not have space-based interceptors in three years,' Melanie Marlowe, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies's Missile Defense Project, previously told The Hill. 'That is a very challenging and expensive problem to solve. But if we start moving quickly, we can make good progress on getting missiles, radars, and satellite constellations in that time frame,' she added. In response to the upscaled U.S. military effort, North Korea has vowed to ramp up its security with strengthened defense measures. 'The global security environment, which is becoming uncertain due to the U.S. undisguised moves for space militarization, proves that the security of the state and the region can be reliably guaranteed only by the symmetry of the matchless power capable of firmly bringing not only the current challenges but also the coming challenges under its control,' the memorandum stressed, according to state media. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
North Korea slams Trump's ‘Golden Dome' plan: ‘Height of self-righteousness'
North Korea on Tuesday slammed President Trump for his plans to create the Golden Dome missile defense system. Officials in Pyongyang dubbed the effort 'the height of self-righteousness, arrogance, high-handed and arbitrary practice' read a memorandum issued by the Institute for American Studies, according to state media. The country now joins Russia and China in their critique of the United States' outer space defense system, projected by Trump to cost $175 billion. The Golden Dome model is expected to mirror Israel's Iron Dome, intercepting scheduled strikes from near and far in the outer space realm. North Korea's leaders have skirted the idea that the project's development stems from the threat of war but seeks to provoke a nuclear war instead. 'Under the pretext of defending its mainland, it has been hell-bent on building a missile defense system targeting the independent sovereign states including the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]. Clear is the reason why the U.S. is scheming to freeze the so-called 'threat' from sovereign states as a pretext for modernizing its missile defense system, persistently spinning out the time-worn sophism just like a guilty party filing the suit first,' the memorandum read. 'It is to preemptively attain military superiority in an all-round way by justifying its hegemony-oriented moves for space arms buildup and accelerating outer space militarization behind the screen of 'mainland defence' and to launch the military strike at its enemy states at its will by relying on it,' it added. The Trump administration said the system would take three years to build, culminating at the end of the president's second term. However, experts have doubted its completion in the short timeline, suggesting the Golden Dome's development would need significant extensions and bipartisan support. 'We will not have space-based interceptors in three years,' Melanie Marlowe, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies's Missile Defense Project, previously told The Hill. 'That is a very challenging and expensive problem to solve. But if we start moving quickly, we can make good progress on getting missiles, radars, and satellite constellations in that time frame,' she added. In response to the upscaled U.S. military effort, North Korea has vowed to ramp up its security with strengthened defense measures. 'The global security environment, which is becoming uncertain due to the U.S. undisguised moves for space militarization, proves that the security of the state and the region can be reliably guaranteed only by the symmetry of the matchless power capable of firmly bringing not only the current challenges but also the coming challenges under its control,' the memorandum stressed, according to state media.
Free Malaysia Today
22-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump's ‘Golden Dome' US missile defence plan faces major challenges
President Donald Trump's 'Golden Dome' missile defence initiative confronts serious technical and political challenges. (AP pic) WASHINGTON : US President Donald Trump's plan for a nationwide missile defence system – dubbed 'Golden Dome' – faces significant technical and political challenges, and it could cost far more than he has estimated to achieve its goals. Trump wants a system that can defend against a wide array of enemy weapons – from intercontinental ballistic missiles to hypersonic and cruise missiles to drones – and he wants it ready in about three years, or as he nears the end of his second term in office. Four months after Trump initially ordered the Pentagon to develop options for the system, however, little in the way of further details has emerged. 'The main challenges will be cost, the defence industrial base, and political will. They can all be overcome, but it will take focus and prioritisation,' said Melanie Marlowe, a nonresident senior associate in the Missile Defense Project at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The White House and congress are going to have to agree on how much to spend and where the money will come from,' Marlowe said, noting that 'our defense industrial base has atrophied,' though 'we have begun to revive it.' She also cited the need for more progress on sensors, interceptors and other components of the project. Trump on Tuesday announced an initial US$25 billion in funding for Golden Dome, saying its eventual cost would be about US$175 billion. That figure is likely far lower than the actual price of such a system. Thomas Roberts, assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the price estimate was 'not realistic.' 'The challenge with the statements from yesterday is that they lack the details needed to develop a model of what this constellation would really look like,' he said. Earlier this month, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the cost of space-based interceptors to defeat a limited number of intercontinental ballistic missiles at between US$161 billion and US$542 billion over 20 years. A system such as that envisaged by Trump 'could require a more expansive SBI (space-based interceptor) capability than the systems examined in the previous studies. Quantifying those recent changes will require further analysis,' the CBO said. The Golden Dome concept – and name – stem from Israel's Iron Dome air defence system. But the US' missile threats differ significantly from the short-range weapons that Iron Dome is designed to counter. Beijing is closing the gap with Washington when it comes to ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, while Moscow is modernising its intercontinental-range missile systems and developing advanced precision strike missiles, according to the Pentagon's 2022 Missile Defense Review. The document also said the threat of drones – which have played a key role in the Ukraine war – is likely to grow, and warned of the danger of ballistic missiles from North Korea and Iran, as well as rocket and missile threats from non-state actors. Chad Ohlandt, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, said 'the threat is clearly getting worse,' but the 'key question is how to most cost effectively counter' it. 'Any questions of realism or feasibility' for Golden Dome 'depend on where we set the bar. Defend against how many threats? Threats of what capability? What is to be defended? As you raise the bar, it becomes more expensive,' Ohlandt said. Thomas Withington, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said 'there are a number of bureaucratic, political, science and technological milestones that will need to be achieved if Golden Dome is ever going to enter service in any meaningful capacity.' 'It is an incredibly expensive undertaking, even for the US defence budget. This is serious, serious money,' Withington said. 'I'm not holding my breath as to whether we will actually ever see this capability.'
Mint
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
What challenges could Trump's Golden Dome face to make it operational by end of his term?
Golden Dome missile defence plan: As the US President Donald Trump on Tuesday selected a design for the $175-billion project and identified a Space Force general to lead the programme, experts suggest it could confront major technical and political hurdles, and the actual cost to achieve its objectives could be much higher than he has projected. While the US president pushes for a defence system capable of countering a broad range of enemy weapons, comprising intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and drones, he also wants it operational by the end of his second term. A nonresident senior associate in the Missile Defense Project at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, Melanie Marlowe, said, 'The main challenges will be cost, the defense industrial base, and political will. They can all be overcome, but it will take focus and prioritization.' She added, "The White House and Congress are going to have to agree on how much to spend and where the money will come from. Our defense industrial base has atrophied," though 'we have begun to revive it'. Marlowe also emphasised the need for further advancements in sensors, interceptors, and other key elements of the project. Assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Thomas Roberts, said the price estimated was 'not realistic', adding, 'The challenge with the statements from yesterday is that they lack the details needed to develop a model of what this constellation would really look like." A senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, Chad Ohlandt, stated "the threat is clearly getting worse," but the "key question is how to most cost effectively counter" it, further continuing, "Any questions of realism or feasibility" for Golden Dome 'depend on where we set the bar. Defend against how many threats? Threats of what capability? What is to be defended? As you raise the bar, it becomes more expensive.' Associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Thomas Withington, said, "there are a number of bureaucratic, political, science and technological milestones that will need to be achieved if Golden Dome is ever going to enter service in any meaningful capacity. It is an incredibly expensive undertaking, even for the US defense budget. This is serious, serious money. I'm not holding my breath as to whether we will actually ever see this capability." Inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, the Golden Dome is designed to defend the United States against advanced missile threats, including hypersonic and space-launched missiles. The Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the system aims to protect 'the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear'
