Can Trump's expensive “Golden Dome” missile defense system be done?

Earth heads rain from beyond the earth's atmosphere. The US infrastructure has faster than sounding cruise rockets. Heavenly high nuclear explosions.

These are just a few of the nightmare scenarios that experts could warn if the outdated and limited defense systems of the United States were overwhelmed in a future high-tech attack.

Even a single, relatively small nuclear detonation hundreds of miles over the heads of the Americans would create an electromagnetic impulse – or EMP – that would achieve apocalyptic results. Airplanes would fall from the sky through the country. Everything, from handheld electronics and medical devices to water systems, becomes completely useless.

“We weren't for 100 years,” said William Fortschen, author and gun researcher at Montreat College in North Carolina. “We would lose everything and do not know how to rebuild it. It would be equivalent of us who decreased 1,000 years and have to start over.”

In response to these hypothetical – but experts say that it is quite possible – US President Donald Trump has a rocket sign “Next Generation” in mind: the Golden Dome.

Although many experts agree that the establishment of such a system is necessary, the high costs and its logistical complexity of Trump will make Trump's mission to strengthen America's rocket defense extremely challenging.

An executive order, which called for the creation of the Iron Dome for America, originally called “Iron Dome for America”, found that the threat of weapons of the next generation has become “more intensive and complex” over time, a potentially “catastrophic” scenario for the USA.

Patrycja Bazylczyk, a rocket defense expert in the Washington DC main seat for strategic and international studies, said the BBC that existing systems are designed for intercontinental ballistic rockets or ICBMs, such as used by North Korea. But also powerful nations such as Russia and China also invest in newer technologies that could not only remove neighbors but also an ocean.

The threats, which are publicly identified by US defense officers, include hyperspics that can move faster than the speed of sound and fractional orbital bombing systems -also called FOBs -that could provide explosive heads from space.

Everyone – even in limited numbers – are fatal.

“The golden dome is re-exhibiting our rocket defense policy for our great power competitors,” said Ms. Bazylczyk. “Our opponents invest in long-distance strike functions, including things that are not typical rockets that we have been dealing with for years.”

So far, the White House and the Defense Officials have provided only a few concrete details about what the golden dome – which is still in the conceptual phases – would actually look.

Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said on May 20, along with Trump in the Oval Office, only that the system will have several layers “about the country, sea and space, including spatial sensors and interceptors”.

Trump added that the system would be able to intercept rockets, “even if they are started from other sides of the world and even if they are started in space”, with various aspects of the program, which is based on Florida, Indiana and Alaska.

In earlier certificates in the congress, the newly mentioned supervisor of the program, General Michael Guetlein, said Space Force that the Golden Dome will build on existing systems that largely target traditional ICBMs. A new system would add several layers that could also recognize and defend cruise rockets and other threats, even by intercepting before the start or in the different phases of their flight.

At the moment, the US rocket defense agency mainly relies on 44 ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California to combat a limited rocket attack.

Experts have warned that the existing system is unevenly inadequate if the US home of Russia and China should be attacked, each of which has an extended arsenal of hundreds of ICBMS and thousands of cruise kilos.

“[Current systems] were created for North Korea, “said Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn, a defense expert in the center for new American security.

The Congressional Research Office (CBO) has announced that “hundreds or thousands” of room -based platforms would be necessary to “only provide a minimal defense against incoming rockets – a potentially enormously expensive statement.

Trump first revealed his concept for the Golden Dome during a joint speech to the Congress in March when he said: “Israel has it, other places have it and the United States should have it too.”

The president referred to the “Iron Dome” system of Israel, with which the country has been used to accept rockets and rockets since 2011.

However, Israel's iron dome is supposed to intercept shorter threats, while two other systems – known as David's loop and the arrow – combat larger ballistic rockets, such as those fired by Iran and the Houthis in Yemen.

Ms. Bazylczyk described the iron dome as threatened at “lower level” like rockets from the Gaza Strip or the South Libanonic rocket.

The golden dome would also go beyond that to recognize Rores missiles, she said.

To achieve this, she said that it has to combine different skills.

“And I will look for the command and control system that all of this can interweave together,” she said, noticing that there is currently no such thing.

Creating this system is an incredibly complicated and costly proposal.

In the Oval Office, Trump suggested that the golden dome could be completed by the end of its term, with the total cost of $ 175 billion over time, including an initial investment of $ 25 billion.

His estimate is far outside the synchronization with the CBOs, which has included the potential price at $ 542 billion over 20 years alone. Experts said that the total costs could ultimately absorb a large part of the massive US defense budget.

“I think that's unrealistic,” said Dr. Pettyjohn. “This is complicated, with several systems that have to be integrated together. Each of these steps has its own risks, costs and schedules.”

“And to go quickly, will add more costs and risk,” she added. “You will probably produce something that is not rated as thoroughly … There will be failures on the way, and what you produce may need great overhaul.”

The creation of the golden dome has also triggered fears that this can lead to a new “arms arm”, enemies preparing their own efforts to find ways to overwhelm or deal with their defense.

The spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, said, for example, reporters that the plan “reinforces the risk of a battlefield”.

Those who are involved in researching scenarios and the US defense policy are discussing these concerns. They argue potential enemies, they are already investing strongly in offensive skills.

“The golden dome aims to change our opponents' strategic calculation,” said Ms. Bazylczyk. “Improving Homeland Air and rocket defense reduces the trust of a potential attacker to achieve all the goals you are looking for.”

“It increases the threshold for her to participate in this attack,” she added. “And it contributes to the general deterrent.”

Even a partially closed Golden Dome, said Mr. Fortgen, can prevent a nightmare scenario from taking place.

“I will breathe much easier,” he said. “We need this type of system. The golden dome is the answer.”