Picture this.
A missile carrying a nuclear warhead is blazing through the sky, and rapidly closing in on a densely populated area that houses vital infrastructure. But the missile is obliterated mid-flight, long before it can breach the airspace.
Well, this is the kind of futuristic defence shield that US President Donald Trump hopes to build. But on a much grander scale.
On the 20th of May, the US president green-lit the development of one of the most ambitious anti-missile systems in American history, aimed at countering threats from its adversaries Russia, China and North Korea.
Dubbed the Golden Dome, this multilayered missile system is envisioned as a mix of ground-based and space-based sensors and missile interceptors.
Trump claims it can intercept any kind of missiles from anywhere, even from space.
In principle, it's similar to Israel’s Iron Dome.
The Irone Dome works in three stages. It first scans the airspace for potential threats using ground-based radars, such as infrared or laser-based systems. If a threat is detected, the system tracks its speed, altitude, and trajectory.
And once the nature of threat is identified — be it a fighter jet, ballistic missile, or drone — ground-based or aircraft-based missiles are launched to intercept and destroy the threats.
But the Irone Dome can track threats only within a 70 kilometre radius.
The proposed Golden Dome works on the same principle, but on a much larger scale, extending as far as the outer space.
The Golden Dome will leverage a network of hundreds of satellites circling the United States with sophisticated sensors and interceptors.
Once a missile is detected, the Golden Dome will either shoot it down before it enters the airspace, or neutralise it somewhere along the missile’s path of travel.
While the space shield negates threats, a defensive layer will be activated beneath it, covering the US like a dome.
This, Trump says, will effectively knock out any incoming enemy missiles after the lift off.
Though the Golden Dome is largely modelled after Israel’s Iron Dome, this space-based shield is actually the continuation of what former US president Ronald Reagan proposed in 1984.
He called it the ‘Star Wars’ initiative, officially known as the Strategic Defence Initiative.
The proposal involved many layers of technology that would enable the US to identify, and destroy automatically, a large number of incoming ballistic missiles, as they were launched.
But the project never took off. Massive gaps in cost and technology, coupled with the risk of violating an existing anti-ballistic missile treaty, prevented the Reagan administration from launching the initiative.
But what couldn’t come to fruition 40 years ago, Trump promises to get done by the end of his term in 2027.
But the doubts and criticism surrounding the feasibility of such a complex project hasn’t waned off, even after 4 decades.
The proposed shield is expected to cost at least $175 billion. Trump has already set aside $25 billion to initiate the project.
But the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that deploying and operating just the space-based interceptors could cost up to $542 billion over the next two decades.
No wonder then, that over 180 companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Lockheed Martin, have expressed interest in the project. They are ready to build and deploy more than a thousand satellites for global missile tracking.
Meanwhile, skeptics have argued that Trump’s plan to build a massive missile shield could potentially trigger a space war.
China has condemned the proposed Golden Dome and urged the US to abandon their plans.
Russia said it could prompt the resumption of nuclear arms control talks between Moscow and Washington.
Regardless, the Golden Dome is a long way off. The project needs to clear many hurdles — political, technological and financial — before Trump's futuristic shield becomes a reality.
