Golden Dome rests on a promise it cannot deliver—reliably defending the United States from the threat of nuclear weapons. Since the 1960s, the United States has spent more than $450 billion trying to develop missile defense systems capable of reliably defending the U.S. from intercontinental ballistic missile threats.[i] No system to date has demonstrated that capability. Despite this history of costly failure, President Donald Trump has proposed building a “Golden Dome” missile defense system with that same goal in mind.[ii]
Originally labelled “Iron Dome for America,” the program draws its inspiration from Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. However, the comparison masks critical differences in the challenges facing these systems—Israel’s missile defenses are designed to defend against short- and medium-range missiles and rockets armed with conventional bombs, while Golden Dome aims to protect the entire United States, a far larger area, against nuclear-armed, intercontinental-range weapons. The viability challenges associated with Golden Dome are thus vastly greater than those facing Israel’s missile defense systems, as are the likely costs.
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