The Golden Dome
For those of us old enough, we remember the “Cold War” between the US and Soviet Union lasting for decades after WWII.
There was a period when the government set up numerous nuclear bomb shelters, many private bomb shelters were built, and schools had drills and exercises for students should there be a nuclear attack. Suffice it to say it was a period of imminent threat for everyone in the country (and the world) as the two world nuclear powers did much huffing and puffing. The nuclear arms race was on as both countries developed and deployed thousands of missiles with nuclear warheads to be launched in response to an attack.
If nuclear war erupted, everyone knew that the two countries could annihilate each other and potentially the rest of the world.
It was a time when the US defense budget ballooned as did that of the Soviet Union. The Soviets claimed to be producing missiles “like sausages”, and ever-more US missiles would be needed to defend against their fleet.
However, the US had more resources (and money) than the Soviets, which put pressure on the USSR to match it – which it did initially and tried to do longer term.
The straw that broke the camel’s cold war back was Ronald Reagan when in 1983 he announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) – commonly referred to at the time as “Star Wars.” He called for a multifaceted defense system, including satellites. Regan’s idea was to render nuclear weapons obsolete and end the doctrine of mutual assured destruction.
As an aside here, in a 1986 speech, Senator Joe Biden said, “Star Wars represents a fundamental assault on the concepts, alliances and arms-control agreements that have buttressed American security for several decades, and the president’s continued adherence to it constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft.”
The reality was that the Soviets lacked the financial resources and research capabilities to compete with the United States’ ‘Star Wars’ strategic defense initiative. This marked the commencement of the decline, not only of the Cold War, but also of the Soviet Union in 1989. The Berlin Wall came down shortly after.
The idea has been dormant since.
Then on January 27, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Department of Defense to build an “Iron Dome for America,” which is shorthand for a missile defense shield for the United States – and since rebranded as the “Golden Dome.”
The Executive Order directs implementation of a next-generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks.
The stated goal is to provide for the common defense of American citizens, This EO accelerates the development and deployment of Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Layers, proliferated space-based interceptors, a Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, capabilities to defeat salvoes prior to launch, non-kinetic missile defense capabilities, and underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities.
I will not spend the space ‘defining’ the specific technologies and abilities of what the above-named things really mean. Non-kinetic missile defense is beyond most of us. Its high-tech stuff applied to the military defense of the US.
The EO also would secure the supply chains for all components of the Dome.
There are three phases to a ballistic missile: boost, midcourse and terminal.
The boost phrase refers to the launch, midcourse is the space trajectory, and terminal is when it’s on the way back down toward the target. The Patriot intercept system is focused on the terminal phase.
The idea of Reagan, and now Trump, is to not only launch and employ numerous satellites to sense enemy missiles and destroy them in their midcourse and terminal phases, but to identify and destroy them in the launch phase. That will require the satellite deployment of sensors of the type which currently do not exist. It will also likely require the use of lasers strong enough over great distances to disrupt a ballistic missile that don’t exist either. (We need our students to be able to read, do math and dream!)
The grand idea is to de-nuclearize the world.
In that scheme perhaps this administration and friendly countries with the bomb should offer Russia and China an invitation to assist and share in the development of national shields against ballistic missiles. That would leave rouge states that have or would attain intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads defenseless and realize their threat(s) are worthless.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/iron-dome-and-implications-north
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
SPIDER Bytes
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