Earlier this week, Trump detailed his plans to build the “Golden Dome,” previously known as the “Iron Dome for America,” as defense contractors and tech companies already line up to be considered for development.
“We’ll have it done in three years,” Trump told reporters at the White House on May 21. “Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world.”
While Israel’s air defense network is considered one of the most advanced aerial defense systems in the world, the missile shield is responsible for defending a country roughly the size of the state of New Jersey — the second smallest US state — from short-range threats.
Trump aims to make the Golden Dome a space-based missile system to defend the US — about the size of continental Europe — against advanced ballistic and hypersonic missile threats from the world’s most powerful countries. Russia has an estimated 4,300 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, each of which a system like Golden Dome must be capable of defeating, necessitating an even larger number of intercept missiles and other weapons.
“I think that this year, we’re going to see a different national conversation about space,” Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider.
