https://arab.news/76kn4
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced the Golden Dome, a space missile defense system designed to counter long-range and hypersonic missile threats to the US. The project begins with an initial investment of $175 billion and is estimated to cost up to $542 billion over 20 years, potentially reaching trillions. A $25 billion down payment has already been secured through a Republican spending bill. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein of the US Space Force was appointed program manager, and leading defense companies such as SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin are preparing for involvement.
This gigantic project is a mix, I would say, of Israel’s Iron Dome and President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. Since 2011, the Iron Dome has successfully protected Israel from short-range rockets and, as we witnessed this year, from long-range attacks as well. It also reboots and amplifies Reagan’s 1983 SDI, which at the time was nicknamed “Star Wars,” and had the goal of placing lasers and interceptors in space to protect the US against Soviet nuclear missiles.
SDI never materialized due to cost, technological limits, and political opposition, yet it had an effect on the morale of the USSR and contributed to the end of the Cold War. Moreover, it transformed the arms race and defensive thinking, inspiring and accelerating the development of many defensive systems already in place, such as the Patriot missile system.
