By Blessing Nweke
US President Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defence system could cost as much as $1.2 trillion over the next two decades, according to a new estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, raising fresh concerns over affordability and effectiveness.
The projected figure is far higher than the $175 billion estimate initially promoted by the Trump administration for the ambitious defence initiative, which aims to protect the United States from advanced ballistic and cruise missile threats.
The CBO report said acquisition costs alone would exceed $1 trillion, covering interceptor systems and a space-based missile warning and tracking network. The report also cautioned that the shield could still be vulnerable to overwhelming attacks from major military rivals such as Russia and China.
Despite the enormous investment, the agency warned the system “could be overwhelmed by a full-scale attack mounted by a peer or near-peer adversary.”
Trump introduced the project shortly after returning to the White House in January, describing it as a defence system using “next-generation” technologies deployed across land, sea and space. He claimed the shield would be capable of intercepting missiles launched from anywhere in the world, including from space.
The initiative was originally referred to as the “Iron Dome for America” in an executive order directing the Pentagon to develop options against increasingly sophisticated aerial threats.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley criticised the programme, calling it “a massive giveaway to defence contractors paid for entirely by working Americans.”
Meanwhile, defence giants SpaceX and Lockheed Martin recently secured contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to develop space-based interceptor prototypes for the project.
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