The U.S. will build a “Golden Dome” to guard against missile attacks, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.
“In the campaign, I promised the American people I would build a cutting-edge missile-defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “That is what we are doing.”
The president said he has “selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next-generation technologies across the lands, sea, and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors.”
The United States has provided significant funding for Israel’s missile-defense system, known as the Iron Dome, and Trump says the technology that now exists is further advanced from that which the U.S. helped Israel build.
Canada would also like “to have protection,” so Trump said, “as usual, we help Canada the best we can.”
The “Golden Dome” will be capable of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world or from outer space, according to the president.
Trump said the total cost of the defense system is estimated to be around $175 billion, noting that the “one big, beautiful bill” that is currently being debated in Congress will include $25 billion for getting construction of the “Golden Dome” underway.
Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein will lead the project. Trump called Guetlein “one of the most respected people in the world having to do with defense,” adding that the general has an “unmatched background in missile-warning technology and defense procurement.”
“Gen. Guetlein also knows we need to move fast, and nobody’s more qualified for this job,” the president said.
Trump signed an executive order one week after taking office outlining plans to an American equivalent of the “Iron Dome.”
The announcement comes as nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are ongoing. Iran has developed its uranium enrichment activity in recent years, rapidly advancing toward nuclear capabilities, but Trump has repeatedly said Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave brief remarks follow the president’s comments, calling the defense system a “game-changer.”
The “Golden Dome” is a “generational investment in the security of America and Americans,” Hegseth said.
President Ronald Reagan put forth an initiative for such a defense system, but the plans never came to fruition. Now, with modern technology, Hegseth says, Trump is “following through” to “protect the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they are conventional or nuclear.”
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
