This is not the first time Russia has maneuvered satellites close to U.S. satellites. In April of this year, Russia launched six satellites; five of them, one month after launch, maneuvered close to another U.S. radar imaging satellite. This repeated pattern with the latest Kosmos satellite may be the reason behind the latest U.S. Air Force announcement. It is the U.S. telling Russia they have been warned.
The Golden Dome – A Revisit of Star Wars
Russia has other concerns about U.S. space deployments, namely Donald Trump’s Golden Dome. Described as technology to protect the U.S. from missile attacks, it remains unclear how all the proposed pieces to shield the country can be integrated into a cohesive system.
Is this no more than 1983 Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, at the time nicknamed Star Wars? Reagan called for a shield to guard the United States with lasers, particle-beam weapons, space-based missiles, and an advanced computer command and control system spanning the Earth. The fall of the Soviet Union made creating Star Wars moot.
Why has Trump revived Star Wars now, giving it his Midas touch, that he has renamed the Golden Dome?
Trump’s version of Star Wars is a cohesive system involving a network of satellites capable of spotting foreign missiles being launched and headed for the U.S. His satellite network would signal ground- and space-based missile interceptors to launch and blow up the attack before it reaches U.S. targets.
Star Wars was considered unfeasible back in 1983 for two reasons: the technology had yet to be invented, and the cost to deploy was seen as astronomical.
Less logistically challenging today than back in 1983, Golden Dome, nevertheless, could become a multi-trillion-dollar boondoggle, piling new debt on top of the tens of trillions the U.S. currently owes. It could help bankrupt the country.
Defense Contractors Line Up for Golden Dome Work
Currently, 12 companies have received funds to begin mapping out the Golden Dome. Some, like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing, are old Department of Defense (DoD) stalwarts. But there are new companies like Voyager Technologies, NASA contractors working on the Artemis Program, that have entered the fray by buying up small startups building propulsion systems, radiation-hardened electronics, and other technologies for the Golden Dome.
How will all these vendors and their technologies finally create a seamlessly integrated Golden Dome? Don’t be surprised to see mega-billionaire artificial intelligence (AI) and space magnates get involved to provide DoD with integration technology to make it all work. Trust me, when Elon Musk of SpaceX and Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Blue Origin enter the fray, the trillions in expenditures will soar like their rockets.
The questions Americans today need to ask include:
- How this can be done feasibly,
- What will be the time frame for deployment,
- How much, in the end, will it all cost?
Golden Dome Specifications
Here are some preliminary answers. In a recent Scientific American article, it quotes Todd Harrison from the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, DC-based public policy think tank leaning to the centre-right. Harrison states,
“Approximately 1,900 interceptors would be needed to provide continuous coverage of all points on Earth.”Â
Harrison assumes every target would need two interceptors just in case the first misses. The assumption, therefore, is a 950-missile strike at the most.
A Golden Dome Reality Check
Reality indicates Russia currently has over 300 ICBMs, 200+ SLBMs (submarine-launched), and an inventory of 1,800 nuclear warheads. Not included in those numbers are IRBMs (intermediate-range ballistic missiles) similar to those being fired at Ukraine.
If the U.S. were using the Golden Dome to protect itself from China, it has 400 ICBMs, and 130+ SLBMs plus 550 intermediate-range missiles.
The only other nuclear missile threat would come from North Korea with its small inventory of ICBMs and nuclear warheads.
Add Iran to the mix, and you add a threat equaling zero. Iran has no operational ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. It has no nuclear weapons. Enough said.
So, the Golden Dome is clearly meant to shield the country from Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. Even then, the coverage wouldn’t neutralize much more than a few lone wolf attacks or a limited salvo of incoming missiles launched within the same timeframe.
The Golden Dome wouldn’t be capable of fending off the kind of comprehensive mass launch as described by doomsday movies like Doctor Strangelove, Fail Safe, On the Beach or The Day After. It would never have enough capacity to provide the shield about which Trump has been boasting.
So far, DoD has issued $3.2 billion in contracts. The Trump administration wants to see a demonstration of an integrated space interceptor capability by 2028. The $3.2 billion is a drop in the bucket. Harrison estimates the $185 billion number Trump quoted at the outset is twenty times less than a more realistic $3.6 trillion that will be needed to make the Golden Dome a reality with a 20-year timeline before full deployment. That’s a far cry from what Trump’s expectations are.
