Latest news with #GOLDENDOME
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Factbox-What is the Golden Dome missile defense shield?
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump picked a design for his Golden Dome missile defense system and named a leader of the ambitious $175 billion defense program. Here are details on Golden Dome, where the idea comes from and how it will work. HOW WILL IT WORK? The aim is for Golden Dome to leverage a network of hundreds of satellites circling the globe with sophisticated sensors and interceptors to knock out incoming enemy missiles after they lift off from countries like China, Iran, North Korea or Russia. "I promised the American people that I would build a cutting edge missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack," Trump said when he made the announcement on Tuesday. In April the Pentagon asked defense contractors how they would design and build a network to knock out intercontinental ballistic missiles during the "boost phase" just after lift-off - the slow and predictable climb of an enemy missile through the Earth's atmosphere. Existing defenses target enemy missiles while they travel through space. Once the missile has been detected, Golden Dome will either shoot it down before it enters space with an interceptor or a laser, or further along its path of travel in space with an existing missile defense system that uses land-based interceptors stationed in California and Alaska. Beneath the space intercept layer, the system will have another defensive layer based in or around the U.S. This is something the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency looked into during the first Trump administration. IS GOLDEN DOME LIKE ISRAEL'S IRON DOME? "We helped Israel with theirs, and [it] was very successful, and now we have technology that's even far advanced from that," Trump said referring to Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built to intercept the kinds of rockets fired by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza. Developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with U.S. backing, it became operational in 2011. Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats like rockets, mortars and drones in mid-air. The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area; if not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly. Iron Dome was originally billed as providing city-sized coverage against rockets with ranges of between 4 and 70 km (2.5 to 43 miles), but experts say this has since been expanded. HOW IS IT SIMILAR TO THEN-PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN'S STAR WARS INITIATIVE? "We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland," Trump said on Tuesday. The idea of strapping rocket launchers, or lasers, to satellites so they can shoot down enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is not new. It was part of the Star Wars initiative devised during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But it represents a huge and expensive technological leap from current capabilities. Reagan's "Strategic Defense Initiative," as it was called, was announced in 1983 as groundbreaking research into a national defense system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete. The heart of the SDI program was a plan to develop a space-based missile defense program that could protect the U.S. from a large-scale nuclear attack. The proposal involved many layers of technology that would enable the United States to identify and destroy automatically a large number of incoming ballistic missiles as they were launched, as they flew, and as they approached their targets. SDI failed because it was too expensive, too ambitious from a technology perspective, could not be easily tested and appeared to violate an existing anti-ballistic missile treaty. WHO WILL BUILD GOLDEN DOME? Trump ally Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX has emerged as a frontrunner alongside software firm Palantir and drone maker Anduril to build key components of the system. Many of the early systems are expected to come from existing production lines. Attendees at the White House press conference with Trump named L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp as potential contractors for the massive project. L3 has invested $150 million in building out its new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it makes the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Satellites that are part of a Pentagon effort to better detect and track hypersonic weapons with space-based sensors and could be adapted for Golden Dome. But Golden Dome's funding remains uncertain. Republican lawmakers have proposed a $25-billion initial investment for it as part of a broader $150-billion defense package, but this funding is tied to a contentious reconciliation bill that faces significant hurdles in Congress.
India Today
21-05-2025
- Business
- India Today
What is Golden Dome? Trump's $175 billion defence shield to counter China, Russia
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans for a $175 billion missile defence system called the Golden Dome, which aims to protect the United States from threats posed by China and from the White House, Trump revealed that he had selected a final design for the project and appointed US Space Force General Michael Guetlein as the head of the Dome will protect our homeland," Trump said from the Oval Office. He also stated that Canada had shown interest in participating in the program, although Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's office did not comment on requests. US Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations General Michael Guetlein and President Donald Trump.(Photo: Reuters) The Golden Dome is expected to rely on hundreds of satellites to detect, track, and possibly intercept incoming missiles. The system is inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, though Trump's plan is broader and includes both surveillance satellites and interceptor satellites to target enemy missiles shortly after launch. The president signed an executive order in January that initiated the of them will be knocked out of the air," Trump said. "The success rate is very close to 100%."CHALLENGES OVER FUNDING AND PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPSTrump's ambitious project with an estimated cost of $175 billion will take years to implement amid questions about political approval and funding. However, Trump said the project should be finished by January 2029, before the end of his term if leaders have raised concerns about the selection process for private companies involved in the project. Elon Musk's company SpaceX is seen as a leading contender, along with Palantir and Pentagon is now moving forward to test and eventually purchase the components of the Golden Dome, including missiles, sensors, and satellites. Several companies, including L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, and RTX Corp, were named as likely partners in the press said states like Alaska, Florida, Georgia, and Indiana will benefit directly from the project. Many of the early components are expected to come from existing production GOLDEN DOME PROJECT COULD BE A GAMECHANGER?The Golden Dome is a next-generation missile defence plan which is aimed at protecting the American mainland from advanced and fast-evolving airborne threats. Unlike older systems focused mainly on Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD), Golden Dome will deal with Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs), cruise missiles, and large swarms of AI-equipped new threats are faster, more sophisticated, and more difficult to follow, so traditional missile defence systems are less effective. It is for this reason that Golden Dome is regarded as a big improvement to the broader Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) the core of the Golden Dome is what defence experts call a "System of Systems." This means many different parts -- like high-tech detection sensors, tracking tools, interceptor missiles, and command-and-control networks -- will all work together as one smart, connected network. Each component will operate autonomously but exchange information in real time in order to rapidly detect and neutralise threats.
