Context: The US President has announced Golden Dome, a proposed $175-billion space-based missile defence shield. Golden Dome aims to create a network of satellites to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts related to Golden Dome.
What is the proposed ‘Golden Dome’?
- Golden Dome is a US space-based missile defence system. It is designed to protect the US from long-range threats, especially Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) from countries like Russia and China.
- It is inspired by Israel’s much lauded Iron Dome system- a short-range, ground-to-air, air defence system. But it is far more ambitious in scale and scope, and seeks to integrate next-generation technologies across land, sea, and even space.
How is the Golden Dome different from the Iron Dome?
The Iron Dome is a short-range, ground-based aerial defence system that primarily relies on radars, not satellites, to identify and track enemy targets.
- Golden Dome will comprise space-based sensors and interceptors, which would make it the very first truly space-based weapon system.
- It will also include ground-based radar systems for detection and targeting, but space-based tech will be the core.
- The system will comprise thousands of small satellites orbiting Earth, which will intercept an enemy missile mere moments after it is launched.
- The defence shield is estimated to cost ~$175 billion, and is expected to be operational by January 2029.
Orbital weaponry, i.e., weapon systems placed in an orbit around Earth, have been conceptualised and even designed by the US and Soviet Union during the Cold War, and even Nazi Germany during World War II.