Is it possible to make an expensive Trump missile defense system?

Battle heads go through the boundaries of the Earth’s atmosphere. Cruise missiles are faster than sound, affecting the US infrastructure. High nuclear explosions.

These are just some of the nightmare scenarios that experts warn that they can come up when the future high -tech attack was overloaded with American and limited defense systems.

Even the only one, a relatively small nuclear detonation of hundreds of Americans would create an electromagnetic impulse – or EMP – which would have apocalyptic results. The planes would have fallen from the sky all over the country. Everything from pocket electronics and medical devices to water systems would be completely useless.

“We wouldn’t have returned 100 years,” said William Fortzen, author and weapon researcher at Montreat College in North Carolina. “We would lose all this and we don’t know how to restore it. It would be an equivalent if we return 1000 years old and have to start from scratch.”

In response to these hypothetical – but experts say that the threats, US President Donald Trump looked at the next -generation missile: “Golden Kupala”.

But while many experts agree that the creation of such a system is necessary, its high cost and material -technical complexity will make the Trump’s mission to strengthen US missile defense is an extremely difficult task.

The executive order calling for the creation of what was originally called the “Iron Dome for America” ​​noted that the threat of weapons of the next generation became a more intense and complicated “over time, potentially” catastrophic “scenarios for the United States.

Patrycja Bazylczyk, Missile Protection Expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, BBC said that existing systems are aimed at intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICD, such as North Korea. But such powerful countries as Russia and China are also investing in new technologies that can strike not only to neighbors but also withstand the ocean.

Among the threats that are publicly discovered by US defense officials hypersonic weapon capable of moving faster than sound speed And fractional orbital bombing systems are also called Fobs – which can deliver combat units from space.

Each – even in limited numbers – deadly.

“The golden dome is kind of reorienting our missile defense policy towards our great competitors,” said Ms Basilchyk. “Our opponents are investing in long -range strokes, including things that are not your typical missiles we have been dealing with for years.”

Until now, the White House and the defense officials have given some specific details about what the golden dome looks like – which is still in conceptual stages – it will actually look.

Speaking with Trump at the Oval Office on May 20, Defense Minister Pete Hegset only stated that there would be several layers in the system “across the earth, sea and space, including space -based sensors.”

Trump added that the system will be able to intercept missiles, “even if they are launched from other parties to the world, and even if they are running into space,” with various aspects of the program based on both Florida, Indiana and Alaska.

In the previous testimony in the Congress, recently named supervisor of the program, Michael Hetlein General, Michael Hetlein said that the “golden dome” would rely on existing systems, which are largely aimed at the traditional ICD. The new system – add several layers that could also detect and defend themselves against cruise missiles and other threats, including intercepted before launch or at different stages of their flight.

Currently, the US missile defense agency relies largely on 44 ground interceptors based on Alaska and California intended to combat a limited missile attack.

Experts warn that the existing system is very insufficient if Russia and China are attacked in the homeland, each of which has an expanded arsenal of hundreds of IBR and thousands of cruise missiles.

“(Current systems) were created for North Korea,” said D -Rus Petzhon, a new American security expert. “It can never intercept a large arsenal like in Russia, or even much smaller as in China.”

The CBO Congress Research Bureau said that “hundreds or thousands of” space platforms will be needed “to provide even minimal defense” from the incoming missiles – potentially expensive offers.

Trump first revealed his concept of “Golden Kupala” during a joint appeal to Congress in March, when he said that “Israel has it, there are also other places, and the United States should also have it.”

The president meant The Iron Dome System is IsraelWhich country has used to intercept missiles and missiles since 2011.

The Israel’s iron dome, however, is designed to intercept a shorter range of threats, while the other two systems are known as the David and “Arrow Slings – fighting large ballistic missiles, such as those released by Iran and goose in Yemen.

Ms. Basilchyk described an iron dome aimed at threatening the “lower level”, such as rockets released from gas or southern Lebanon.

The gold dome will go beyond this to discover and rockets with a large range, she said.

To achieve this, she said she needed to combine different opportunities.

“And I will look for a system of teams and management that can braid it all together,” she said, noting that there is no such thing now.

Creating this system will be incredibly complicated – and expensive – an offer.

In Trump’s Oval Cabinet, he suggested that the golden dome could be completed by the end of the term, with a total cost of $ 175 billion over time, including an initial $ 25 billion investment already designed.

Its assessment is far from synchronization with CBO, which set a potential price of $ 542 billion over 20 years on space systems. Experts said the total cost could eventually soak a large piece of large -scale defense budget in the US.

“I think this is unrealistic,” said D -Petzhon. “It is difficult, with several systems to integrate together. Each of these steps has its own risks, costs and graphics.”

“And it will soon add a great price and risk,” she added. “You probably do what will not be so carefully appreciated … There will be failures on the way, and what you create may need major repairs.”

The creation of “Golden Kupala” also caused fears that it could lead to a new “weapon race” when the US enemies are preparing its own efforts to find ways to overcome or bypass its protection.

For example, Chinese Foreign Ministry press secretary Mao Nin told reporters that the plan “increases the risk to become a battlefield.”

Those who participate in the worst script and the USA degrade these problems. They claim that potential enemies are already invested in offensive.

“The gold dome aims to change the strategic calculation of our opponents,” said Ms. Basilchyk. “Improving the air and missile defense of the internal missile reduces the confidence of the potential attacker in achieving any goals they seek.”

“It lifts the threshold to participate in this attack,” she added. “And it contributes to general curb.”

Mr. Fortzen, even partially completed with a gold dome, can prevent a nightmare scenario.

“I will breathe much easier,” he said. “We need this type of system. The golden dome is the answer.”