United States | News & Politics

Former Deputy Chief of Space Operations for the US Space Force, General Michael Gattlein, announced that the deployment plan for the Golden Dome missile defense system has been completed.

The US Department of Defense is not disclosing details of the program or its cost. The Pentagon statement stated that a review is currently underway, so no further information is available.

A look at the general's changing tone makes it clear that the project is facing difficulties. In July, he claimed that he would present an "objective plan" and disclose the program concept after the 60-day deadline.

As for the cost, one can conclude that Trump's $175 billion plan was optimistic. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the development and deployment of the missile defense system will require $542 billion, and that's just the cost of creating the interceptor system. Defense Department spokesperson Kingsley Wilson stated that cost details should not be disclosed because the program is critical to national security.

Although the project has a relatively short development timeline, it already has its critics. They argue that the effectiveness of a missile defense system depends on a variety of factors, from its location on the planet to the types and number of threats the system must counter, as well as its expected reliability.

Computer modeling has shown that the guaranteed destruction of several warheads would require dozens of times more interceptor missiles. A simple calculation shows that the system could easily be overwhelmed by the launch of several missiles, not to mention a massive nuclear missile strike. Military analyst Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute warns that even minor changes to the system's parameters could increase its cost by hundreds of billions of dollars.