Trump has set the goal of having a fully operational Golden Dome missile defense system in place before the end of his term. The president says the multilayered $175 billion system will for the first time put U.S. weapons in space.
Shown making the announcement at right, Trump envisions ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.
For the last several months, Pentagon planners have been developing options -- which a U.S. official described as medium, high and “extra high” choices, based on their cost -- that include space-based interceptors. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail plans that have not been made public. The difference in the three versions is largely based on how many satellites and sensors — and for the first time, space-based interceptors — would be purchased, The Associated Press reports.
Bob Maginnis is the senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council and author of Preparing for World War III.
"I think we have the technology, but are we willing to expend it? I suppose the bottom line is that I haven't seen the science. I'm somewhat skeptical. I understand what we currently have pretty well. What we're developing isn't there yet."
Maginnis says he likes what the president envisions.
"If the threat is against long range ballistic missiles that come from Russia or China here, then we're going to have to have a sensor system that's pretty expansive, and we have to have forward-placed capabilities bullet on bullet essentially because the lasers just aren't what they need to be yet. We're probably years away even though we're investing heavily in that."
