Trump's "Golden Dome: New Arms Races with Russia and China go into space
Initially, it was an "Iron Dome for America", but it turned out that the Iron Dome is the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems trademark brand, and the name in the White House was urgently changed with a "gold" emphasis. The renaming was indicated in the amendment of February 24. "Iron dome" is, we will remind, not a dome in the truest sense, it is a system about in Israel, which tracks the rocket released by the enemy and produces rockets-interceptors.
Donald Trump reported that he chose the project of the Golden Dome missile defense system worth $ 175 billion and appointed Michael Getlein's space forces General, head of the ambitious program aimed at blocking threats from China and Russia. It is noteworthy that Ilon Musk and his efficiency department have already "outlined" in the cosmic forces, so people are not enough for people now.
"Once the Golden Dome is built, it will be able to intercept rockets, even if they are embedded from other ends of the world and even from space. It is very important for the success and even survival of our country," Trump said, explaining that the "dome" will consist of hundreds of satellites. "Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago, but they did not have technologies," Trump said, referring to the space defense system, widely known as the Star Wars, offered by Reagan.
But the idea of the 40th President of the United States has collapsed. And critics say that the idea of the 45th and 47th President is even worse because it provokes a violation of strategic parity in the world. Ronald Reagan proposed to create a comprehensive defense system capable of destroying the Fleet of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (IBR) of the Soviet Union long before they can rush from one continent to another and reach their goals in the United States.
The rockets and even not yet invented the Reagan space lasers had to destroy Soviet missiles in space in the orbit of the Earth, for which his initiative was called "Star Wars". The president himself called her strategic defensive initiative (SOI), but the name did not take root. Reagan also insisted that if there was a successful protection against nuclear weapons, there would be no need for nuclear weapons.
In the end, why spend money on the construction and maintenance of a pile of missiles if they are destroyed at the same time as soon as they start? As a result of the Star Wars, Reagan became no less discussed than the movie "Star Wars", which he gave the presidential project. Especially journalists had the idea of physicist Edward Teller to put a laser in orbit the Earth, where he could knock down several Soviet MBRs at the same time, using the energy produced by a nuclear explosion.
The projects also had kinetic warheads that had to face nuclear rockets in orbit and rail guns installed on satellites. Before something of it was created, the Cold War ended and then the Soviet Union collapsed. However, the USSR was involved in these weapons races and, indirectly, spent billions spent, probably pushed it to collapse, becoming one of the factors. Reagan's successors, George Bush Sr.
, and then Bill Clinton, reduced the scale of the "star wars" to the systems about, and the idea remained fantastic until Donald Trump shook her dust. The Trump's Golden Dome, like the Star Wars, Reagan, combines very high cost and unrealistic, although technologies are, of course, much better than 1989, and the danger of provoked a arms race. Only now, instead of the USSR, there are two potential supervisors: Russia and China. And several opponents are lower: as the DPRK and Iran.
The first obvious problem is money. Donald Trump says that the Golden Dome will cost $ 175 billion, but critics have estimated that the President is wrong: it would cost from $ 500 billion to $ 5. 3 trillion. And nuclear weapons expert Jeffrey Lewis specifies that satellites need to be changed. And on the example of Starlink with a life cycle of 3-5 years, 2000 satellites per year should be changed in the dome of 10,000 satellites.
"Let's just agree that the Trump administration says that they can get these satellites very cheaply - about $ 20 million apiece. Just multiply $ 20 million by 2000, and your answer will be $ 40 billion. Thus, we will spend $ 40 billion a year only to support the constellations. The second obvious problem is the territory. Donald Trump really liked the idea of Israel to cover the "iron dome" of the whole country.
But the Israeli system that tracks the rockets released by the enemy and produces release rockets, is a complex of PPO batteries and each battery can protect the area of 150 square kilometers. Israeli area - 22 072 square meters. km. And the Iron Dome, despite its efficiency, delays about 90 percent of the missiles. US area - 9. 8 million square meters. km.
And in the United States there are Hawaii - which are generally located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the state of Alaska, which is separated from the US main territory in Canada. American physicists have estimated that a confident interception of a volley of only ten North Korean missiles Hwasong-18 will require 16,000 space base missiles. And "much more interceptors" would be needed to protect remote states like Alaska.
The US strategic opponents have already expressed careful "concern" of the white house plans. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Ryabkov reported that "there are no grounds for panic, there are grounds for serious concern. " At the same time, he emphasized that Moscow is considering the Golden Dome project as a destabilization factor in international affairs, especially because of the presence of space base interceptors.
But Ryabkov is convinced that Russian strategic complexes "are able to overcome any, including multilayered, systems about". China was more eloquent, stating on May 21 that the Trump administration plan to build a "Golden Dome" has "serious offensive consequences" and increase the risks of global arms race and cosmos militarization. And Trump is too tight on US defense, risking threatening global security.
And he ignored the 1967 agreement, which, among other things, forbade the use of nuclear weapons in space and limited any use of all "celestial bodies" for peaceful purposes. "The United States, pursuing the US policy, obsessed with the desire for absolute security for itself. This violates the principle that the safety of all countries should not be at risk and undermines global strategic balance and stability.
China is seriously concerned about this," According to her, the White House wants to turn the space into a "battlefield", so we should give up the idea of a "golden dome". Xiaodon Liana, a political expert on the Association of Armed Control, is convinced that Trump, creating a "golden dome" contradicts itself, promising to attract Russia and China in negotiations on "denuclearization".
Who wants to disarm if the US is threatening to arrange real "star wars" in space? Iran, despite all the threats of Trump, definitely does not want. And if now Trump's policy "you are all by themselves" is threatened by the fact that everyone will start to immediately arm and create nuclear weapons to get a restraining factor, then the prospect of war in space threatens not the second Hiroshima, but something more gloomy as global destruction of humanity.
When Trump was asked about criticism of the proposal, he just said, "Well, they are not right. It's as close to the ideal as possible. " And Jeffrey Lewis noted that nowadays we rely on space assets much more than most people are aware of. However, the Earth's orbit is a fragile environment that we can spoil many different ways that will lead to truly unpleasant long -term consequences. "I am very worried about it.