The US government supposedly thinks of building the “Golden Dome” rocket defense system without the participation of Elon Musk. That should make the project even less likely than already.
If Israel has an “Iron Dome”, it has to be a “Golden Dome” for Donald Trump: Based on the well -known system of Israel, which keeps air strikes from a short distance, Trump announced that it would be a close -mesh air defense system over the entire USA. The system should intercept rockets, even if they were fired from the other side of the world or from space, the US President announced at the end of May.
The project was already considered very ambitious at that time. Now Trump is also supposed to look for new partners for the system: According to information from the Reuters news agency, the White House inquires about alternatives to Elon Musk’s company SpaceX after the relationship between the two has broken in the past few weeks.
Trump’s possible search for alternatives fits into the image of the past few months: After Musk had supported Trump in the election campaign and became one of his closest consultants at the start of the White House, Trump now seems to try to capsize the connections to musk. But for the “Golden Dome” this could mean that the project is becoming even more to become an air castle.
SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril
The previous plan of the US government provided for the rocket system to go into operation by January 2029-and thus at the end of Trump’s legislative period as US president. In addition to SpaceX, the software provider Palantir of the Tech investor Peter Thiel and the armaments group and the armor and the armor and the armor. $ 175 billion was estimated as costs.
The system should go far beyond what the role model “Iron Dome” does: According to Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, the “Golden Dome” should not only be able to intercept rockets and junklers. It should also protect the United States from drones and hyperschallrakets, regardless of whether it is a conventional or nuclear rocket. This means that the sign is not a single program, but an interplay of several protection systems that would have to react to completely different weapon systems.
Musk’s company SpaceX would have a key role: the space company is currently the leading worldwide when it comes to starting its own satellites. SpaceX has already shot more than 9,000 satellites into space for the company Starlink, which also belongs to Musk. For the protective shield, there was a huge network of other sky bodies, which could actually intercept from space. David Burbach, professor on the US Naval, was College in the state of Rhode Island, told the magazine “New Scientist” that the number of the required satellites would surpass everything that has been shot into space so far.
It is unclear which companies can do away from SpaceX. The competition has so far not been able to keep up with Musk satellite starts. According to the Reuters agency, the White House is said to have contacted the Kuiper satellite network, which belongs to the Amazon trading group. So far, Kuiper has only successfully brought 78 satellites into space and plans to increase the number to a total of 3,000. The White House is also said to be in discussion with relatively smaller companies such as Rocket Lab or Stoke Space. In addition there are the large armaments companies Norththrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin or L3harris.
But in addition to the question of the decisive manufacturers, the “Golden Dome” faces other problems: For example, it is expected that the project could become much more expensive than the estimated $ 175 billion. According to the “New Scientist”, the congressional budget office, an independent US authority, had calculated that the project could cost up to $ 542 billion instead. For comparison: For the current year, the U.S. Department of Defense Budget is a total of around $ 850 billion.
