By Ryan Morgan of The Epoch Times
The Department of Defense has selected a design for President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative, Trump announced on May 20.
“I am pleased to announce that we have officially selected the architecture for this cutting-edge system that will deploy next-generation technologies on land, at sea and in space, including space-based sensors and interceptors,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Defense to develop a plan to implement his missile defense proposal.
“It should be fully operational before the end of my term. So we can do it in about three years,” the president said.
Trump said the Defense Department’s chosen plan would cost about $175 billion to implement.
The plan combines new technologies with existing US missile defense systems.
The president said Canada could also work with the United States to help develop an advanced missile defense shield. “Canada wants to participate in that, which would be a fairly small expansion, but we will work with them on pricing.”
In addition to new and improved space-based sensors and interceptors, Trump’s January executive order called on the Defense Department to consider non-kinetic missile interception technologies, such as lasers.
The order also tasked the department with investigating methods and technologies for intercepting missile threats before they are launched or during the initial acceleration phase.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who stood next to Trump during the Oval Office announcement, noted parallels between Trump’s missile defense proposal and the Strategic Defense Initiative put forward by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative included several ambitious missile defense concepts, and some critics called it Reagan’s “Star Wars” proposal.
“President Reagan created this vision 40 years ago. The technology didn’t exist yet. Now it does, and you’re acting on it,” Hegseth told the president.
Republicans in Congress have proposed a $150 billion additional military spending package, about $25 billion of which is earmarked for the Golden Dome project. The $150 billion defense spending plan is part of a larger bill that Trump and his allies hope to push through the reconciliation process, avoiding a potential Senate filibuster.
Trump expressed confidence that the reconciliation bill would be passed.
“We’ve already talked to everyone we need to talk to,” he said.
“Everything is in order.”
In addition to his Golden Dome announcement on Tuesday, Trump named Gen. Michael Guetlein, deputy chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, as program manager for the project.
Trump said Guetlein is “one of the most respected people in the world when it comes to defense.”
