Forty years after President Ronald Reagan first came up with the idea, leaders of the Defense industry say that technology is finally sufficient to build an invisible protective dome of space-based radars, rocket interceptors and laser weapons about the United States.
President Donald TrumpIn love with the Iron Dome Missile Defense System about Israel, first ordered the Ministry of Defense to draw up plans for an American version, the “Golden Dome”, in January.
But Israel Is about the size of New Jersey, so a dome of protection can prove to be much discouraging for the much larger land mass of the US and the threats for Israel usually come from his neighbors, who use short-range weapons. The enemies of America – Noord -Korea, Iran, Russia and China – are half a world gone and armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMS) and Hypbersonics, all factors that make the project more challenging for a nation on the size and scale of the US
So there keep asking. Will the Golden Dome include the entire country, including Hawaii, Alaska and American military bases at locations such as Guam? Could it protect against short distance missiles, long -range missiles, unmanned and manned aircraft?
Digitized concept design of Golden Dome (Lockheed Martin)
Answers can at least be partly at the end of the month, when the Ministry of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget present a financing plan for the project to the White House project. But leaders of the defense industry say that the technology exists to realize a golden dome.
“In our opinion it must be a kind of laminated system. Because, for example, you know, for example photography, photographing, is very different from shooting a hypersonic vehicle or hypersonic weapon,” Raytheon CEO Phil Jasper told Fox News Digital. His space company, a large American defense contractor, produces the Patriot rocket system, Javelin anti-tank missiles and a variety of radar and anti-aircraft systems.
The US already use a layered rocketing weather system that is known as the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system that uses Radar to detect incoming missiles and dismiss them.
It has technology such as the Thaad -battery (terminal at high height Area Defense) to intercept ballistic missiles and the patriot to intercept cruise rockets, ballistic rockets and aircraft. But the country has only deployed seven active Thaad batteries worldwide, with an eighth expected to be operational this year.
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Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein said weeks ago that building a golden dome a Manhattan project level on the entire governmental approach requires the rocket defense agency, Air Force, Army, Navy, Space, Coast Guard and more.
Defense contractors, some of whom have believed that a Golden Dome-like project was on the horizon for years, say that the protection zone can start around large cities such as New York and Washington, DC or sensitive military locations before they are expanding to protect the entire home country.
“What I understand (the goal) is really to protect the entire US, it is to place a dome in the home country,” said Edward Zoiss, president of Space and Airborne Systems for L3Hrris Technologies.
Jasper predicted that some of these defensive measures could be installed quickly, as early as 2026.
“What the administration has explained is that building block approach that you can start to protect certain areas, sometimes, certain regions, and that builds up while you continue to produce these systems. And they can continue to come out of production lines,” he said.
An American warship detects threats in a digitized concept design for a Golden Dome project (Lockheed Martin)
Jonathan Moneymaker from Bluhalo said that the dome would be “less a technology problem” and more a challenge for organizational structure.
“The full potential of all those possibilities that work in combination with each other, on that scale, there are certainly some new elements there,” said Moneymaker.
John Clark, vice -president of Lockheed of technology and strategic innovation, said that the plan will demand that the Pentagon “thinks about what it is on the shelf.”
“There are systems that are today in the Air National Guard or in our current local defense infrastructure in our own country. They can actually be used in the US,” he said.
Clark noted that the use of Defense infrastructure at home “would decrease our current inventory for conflicts in the Greater World.” But he suggested that everything that was pulled out of an army base today could be filled at a later time for worldwide use.
Zoiss, whose company, L3HARRIS Technologies, has already built satellites for the rocket defense agency that can be used for space -based radar systems for a Golden Dome, said that the biggest challenge are missing tracks that no longer follow predictable paths.
“If you go back to your high school physics -lessons, if you understand the corner and trajectory of a bullet, you understand exactly where it is going to land because it follows a parabolic,” he said.
A golden dome needs space-based radar opportunities, experts say (Lockheed Martin)
“ICBMS has followed parabolic processes for decades. But a new class of highly maneuverable cruise ships and hypersonic weapons are not now,” he explained. “Their ending point is uncertain. And our defense systems in the US must now change to be more robust to follow that weapon throughout his entire process.”
Radar on space will be the critical element of threats for the home country in the future, according to Zoiss.
“Our challenge is really long -distance weapons. You know, these are weapons that are extended great distances that maneuver around our current radar systems on land and radar systems based on the sea. So if the weapons around those systems maneuver, this means that our current architecture cannot be moved to the space.”
The Golden Dome could already be well drawn from rocket defense missions, such as the National Capital Region Integrated Air Defense System, which is designed to protect Washington, DC against incoming threats and systems such as Norwegian national advanced surface-air raket system (NASAMs).
And it could already look at other systems on a smaller scale. The army is working on a new iron dome-like air defense system in Guam, known as the Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 system. And it is the development of powerful microwave systems that can be quite right Drone swarms from the sky.
Lasers detect a threat in a draft design of the Golden Dome. (Lockheed Martin)
The Marine Corps intends to fill in three mobile air defense systems this year, including an adjusted iron dome worker.
Other needs can be over-the-horizon radar, including the filling of blind spots in the Arctic for low-flying missiles that embrace the curvature of the earth to prevent detection.
Guetlein said that the nation “should break down the barriers” between Title 10 and Title 50 of the United States Code, the federal laws that reign the defense and clandestine operations of the nation.
“Without a doubt our biggest challenge will be organizational behavior and culture to bring all the pieces together,” said Guetlein.
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It is expected that much of the financing will be classified in Trump’s budget request in 2026 at the congress, on which the White House is working. Even with the first financing, the project can take years to complete, and it will not be cheap.
Steven Morani, acting Unders Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said on Wednesday that he collaborated with the private sector to tackle the “formidable” challenges of the project.
“In accordance with the protection of the home country and per Executive Order of President Trump, we work together with the industrial basic and supply chain challenges related to getting up the Golden Dome,” he said.
