Money down the drain: Why the Golden Dome won't Protect the United States

The United States has announced the successful testing of one of the elements of the Golden Dome missile defense system. This project should become a multi-level shield for the country's defense against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles. Washington calls the system a response to new threats, but Russia and China have previously warned that such a project could undermine stability and launch another round of the arms race. What is the "Golden Dome", why it is compared to Reagan's "Star Wars", and how it can threaten international security — in the Izvestia article.

The Dome over America

"Today, the first test of the Golden Dome project for America was a complete success," Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth announced on the social network X.

According to him, the military used advanced directed energy technologies, the Dynamic Defense Autonomous Defeat (DDAD) system autonomously detected approaching targets, aimed weapons at them and destroyed several threats.

The tests took place at the White Sands proving ground in New Mexico. According to the Laser Wars portal, several weapons could participate in the demonstration at once. Among them were the AMP-HEL army laser, the DE-MSHORAD system, the 300-kilowatt IFPC-HEL laser from Lockheed Martin, known as the Valkyrie, as well as microwave systems based on the Leonidas complex.

The Golden Dome project has already become one of the most ambitious defense initiatives of the Donald Trump administration. Hegseth said the test was made possible by a "great, wonderful law" that allocated $25 billion in seed funding to the dome last year. However, estimates of the total cost differ radically: the White House talked about $175 billion, while the Congressional Budget Office admits that the system could cost about $1.2 trillion over 20 years.

The project is also noticeably different in scale from the usual missile defense systems. The Israeli "Iron Dome", with which it is often compared, is designed primarily to intercept short-range missiles over a relatively small area. The American "shield" should cover the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii, as well as respond to threats from nuclear powers.

Therefore, it is more often compared not so much with the Israeli system as with the Reagan Star Wars program, an attempt to bring part of the missile defense system into space.

"President Trump is bringing to life President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. With the Golden Dome, the military department will defend the United States more powerfully than ever before. The Golden Dome is real, strong, and moving on schedule," Hegseth emphasized.

The Trump administration expects to deploy the system by the end of his presidential term, January 2029.

Security threat

The American initiative naturally caused concern among Russia and China. Moreover, Washington does not hide the fact that the dome should protect the United States not only from threats from North Korea or Iran, but also from the missile capabilities of nuclear competitors — Moscow and Beijing.

In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China. In a joint statement, the parties separately criticized the American missile defense program.

"The recently announced large—scale Golden Dome for America program is also deeply destabilizing, which involves the creation of an unlimited, global, deeply layered and multi-spherical missile defense system in order to protect against any missile threats, including from all types of missiles of "equal and comparable strength opponents," the document says..

In addition, earlier, the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, noted that the project would turn space into a war zone, unleash a space arms race and undermine the international security system.

These experiences are understandable: Today, strategic deterrence is based not only on the presence of nuclear weapons, but also on the confidence of the parties in the inevitability of a retaliatory strike. If one of them receives a reliable shield from missile retaliation, then this stability may collapse. In addition, there may be concerns that the United States simply cannot resist the temptation to strike the first blow.

"China is seriously concerned. We urge the United States to abandon the development and deployment of a global anti—missile system as soon as possible and take concrete actions to strengthen strategic trust between leading countries," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

At the same time, Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia and China "are not fighting with anyone" and are ready to cooperate with partners around the world, including the United States. At the same time, the Kremlin has already made it clear that the Russian military will closely monitor the implementation of the American program.

"What kind of "dome" will it be? What threats will it be designed against? I have no doubt that our military will closely monitor and analyze these plans," Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The future belongs to drones

The Golden Dome is primarily designed to repel a nuclear missile strike, military expert Anatoly Matviychuk said in a conversation with Izvestia. According to him, such a strike could represent 200-300 flying objects. At the same time, the fighting in Ukraine shows that modern threats are no longer limited to missiles: today, multi-level systems of unmanned vehicles are actively used, when thousands of drones can participate in an attack.

— No dome can handle so many targets. That is why the project is causing so much criticism. In my opinion, Trump decided to use a beautiful picture in many ways: Israel has an "Iron Dome", and it should have a "Golden Dome". Such a system can play a certain role and close some of the threats. But it will not be an ideal protection for Americans," the analyst explained.

The US statements are primarily of an advertising nature, agrees Igor Korotchenko, editor of the National Defense magazine. According to him, the United States did not launch a combat platform with weapons based on new physical principles into low-Earth orbit. That is, we were not talking about a real experiment to intercept the warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles from space. Therefore, for now it can be assumed that it was either a computer simulation or a field experiment, but not in space, but at one of the American training grounds.

— At the current level of development of science and technology, it is impossible to create a full-fledged anti-missile shield in space over North America in the next 20-30 years. But even if the United States builds a large—scale missile defense system, Russia still has alternative means of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States, including Poseidon and Burevestnik," the expert points out.

The only thing the United States really has today is limited missile defense areas in Alaska and California, where Ground—Based Interceptor missile defense systems are deployed, he emphasizes.

— Under favorable conditions, they can allow the destruction of single intercontinental ballistic missiles. But Russia's strategic nuclear forces are still capable of striking back. In the coming decades, there will be no such "Golden Dome" that could guarantee to prevent the implementation of this task in the event of a direct military threat from the United States," concluded Korotchenko.