Donald Trump’s proposed $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense system is the most ambitious missile shield initiative in the United States since Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), often known as “Star Wars”.
The concept calls for a multi-layered barrier of hundreds of satellites equipped with sensors and interceptors, potentially incorporating space-based lasers, to identify and destroy incoming ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles from foes such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Golden Dome, like SDI, seeks to intercept missiles at all stages of flight, including the “boost phase,” which is technically the most difficult. Reagan’s SDI was eventually abandoned after years of investment due to overwhelming technological and financial challenges, as the required technology did not exist at the time and is extremely difficult today. Critics have drawn clear parallels between the two projects, saying that, while technology has evolved, the magnitude and complexity of defending the entire United States from modern missile threats far outweighs the regional defense afforded by systems such as Israel’s Iron Dome.
The United States is significantly larger than Israel, making national coverage exponentially more challenging. The Iron Dome was intended to handle short-range, low-volume attacks, whereas the Golden Dome must counter long-range, high-speed, and maneuverable threats (ICBMs, hypersonic glide vehicles, and orbital systems).
Intercepting missiles during the boost phase necessitates rapid detection and response, which is particularly difficult given the short time frame and high speeds involved. Many proposed technologies, including space-based lasers, have yet to be tested on a large scale.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that a fully complete missile shield would cost more than $500 billion over two decades, significantly beyond Trump’s $175 billion, three-year plan. Cost overruns and delays are likely, as with previous missile defense programs.
Deploying such a system may spark an arms race, forcing enemies to develop new offensive weapons to overwhelm or bypass the shield, further disrupting global security.
The majority of independent specialists and researchers feel the Golden Dome is unlikely to meet its claimed objectives. The technical, budgetary, and strategic constraints are similar to those that doomed the SDI; notwithstanding progress, the fundamental challenges of detecting sophisticated, high-speed missile threats over a large region remain unresolved. Even if partial capabilities are deployed, the system is projected to fall short of providing total protection, potentially prompting enemies to escalate their own weapons programs.
“The proposal for an advanced missile defense shield over the United States provides no assurance of success and risks jeopardizing global security… Like the Golden Dome, the SDI suggested a layered defense system based on cutting-edge, largely untested technologies… However, despite years of investment, the SDI never produced a workable system and was finally abandoned, exposing the gap between ambition and capabilities that persists today.”
Trump’s Golden Dome missile shield faces the same intractable hurdles as Reagan’s Star Wars: unproven technology, exorbitant costs, and the near-impossibility of reliably defending the entire United States from modern missile threats. History and technical reality imply that the plan will fall short of its goals, just as SDI did decades ago.
