Donald Trump dreams of an Iron Dome for the United States

President Donald Trump wants to build a new missile defense for the United States for the model of the Israeli Iron Dome in almost four years in almost four years. Trump announced this in the White House. 25 billion US dollars (22 billion euros) are planned as start-up financing for the project. In total, the project should cost around $ 175 billion.

After its completion, the “Golden Dome” will be able to intercept rockets, “even if they are started from other sides of the world, and even if they are started from space,” said Trump. “This is very important for the success and even the survival of our country,” he emphasized.

The state of Alaska will play an important role, as will Florida, Georgia and Indiana. Canada has been interested in participating in the project.

Trump had signed a disposal in January a few days after his inauguration to initiate the project. At the time, he instructed the Ministry of Defense to develop a implementation plan within 60 days.

In addition to short-range missiles, the project called “Golden Dome” should also be able to ward off modern hypershall and long-range missiles- both from the air and from space. The protective shield could include hundreds of satellites for rocket detection and tracking. It would go well beyond the existing US defense systems.

The “Golden Dome” would also differ significantly from its Israeli model Iron Dome, which is specially designed to intercept short -range missiles and floors to protect densely populated areas. The US version, on the other hand, is more ambitious and is also intended to ward off intercontinental rockets with nuclear weapons. This is based on US plans from President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). This wanted a rocket defense sign based on the film series “Star Wars”, in which interception systems were to be placed in space.

The United States has supported the development, construction and maintenance of the Iron Dome in Israel with large sums. The system is therefore also a symbol of close security policy cooperation between the two countries.

The geographical and security policy conditions in the United States are fundamentally different. Neither Mexico nor Canada represent a military threat, and a nationwide system would be inefficient and extremely expensive due to the enormous size of the United States.

The US project is therefore faced with political obstacles and uncertain funding in the congress. In the coming year there will be intermediate elections in which Trump’s Republicans could lose their majority in one or both chambers. Democratic MPs have expressed concerns about the procurement process and the participation of SpaceX. In addition to Palantir and Anduril, the company of the Trump allied and Tesla boss Elon Musk is the favorite for the construction of important system components. Participants of the press conference also called L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp as potential contractors.