One of Donald Trump’s less-examined projects since taking office last year is a vast new missile defence system to protect the United States from a strategic nuclear attack. For older anti-nuclear campaigners, it brought back memories of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) programme of the 1980s, famously dubbed ‘Star Wars’ almost from the day it was announced.
With his penchant for anything gold, Trump’s new version of SDI is the ‘Golden Dome for America’, which he intended to be operational before he leaves office in January 2029. That timetable has since slipped significantly, and like the SDI, its predicted cost of $175bn is expected to also go through the roof. More importantly still, it won’t even work.
The Golden Dome would involve a multitiered system with ground-based and space-based components that can identify, intercept and then destroy incoming missiles. Congress has so far approved an initial $24bn budget for the project, although an analysis by the non-partisan US Congressional Budget Office has since put the total cost at $1.2trn over 20 years.
