ALBAWABA - RosCongress, a Russian non-governmental group, says that the United States may spend more than $1 trillion over the next ten years on its large "Golden Dome" missile-defense program, which President Donald Trump has been pushing as a flagship program.
The group says that the estimated cost includes research and development, making thousands of interceptor missiles, building a satellite network, and building the global infrastructure needed to run and maintain the system.
The report says that the program is meant to do more than just protect the U.S. from countries like North Korea and Iran. It's also meant to fight against major strategic rivals like Russia and China. RosCongress says that the main goal of the system is to make nuclear weapons in Europe and the Asia-Pacific less effective, which would change the overall strategic landscape.
According to the report, industry projections say that by 2030, U.S. manufacturers will need to make more than 1,000 PAC-3 MSE interceptor missiles every year to meet program needs. This would mean a big increase in their current production capacity.
Trump came up with the idea for the Golden Dome as a next-generation shield against a wide range of threats. It is meant to protect against long-range drones, cruise missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and hypersonic weapons. The program has already led to new arguments between world powers. Moscow has said that such an ambitious defense system could speed up a new arms race.
Analysts say that the trillion-dollar price tag shows how big the investment Washington is thinking about is and that there will be a lot of demand in the future for U.S. defense contractors who work on missile interception technologies, space-based sensors, and high-end defense infrastructure. People think that the Golden Dome will have a big effect on U.S. defense budgets, how the country buys things, and how countries interact with each other in the years to come.
