Start Trump’s Golden Dome now

OPINION:

In May, when President Trump announced his “Golden Dome” plan for a U.S. missile defense, we all cheered for two reasons. The first was that, as President Reagan said when he announced his Strategic Defense Initiative against Russian missiles, a defensive system makes more moral sense than the old-fashioned idea of mutually assured destruction. Why have only offensive missiles when millions of lives can be saved by a purely defensive system?

Reagan’s SDI encountered congressional derision from powerful Democrats such as Sen. Carl Levin, who scorned it as a “Star Wars” fantasy. Unfortunately, it died on the vine.

The second reason is that the threats against our nation have multiplied considerably since the Reagan era. Not only Russia but also China, North Korea and perhaps Iran have joined the nuclear club with missile capabilities that could be used to attack the United States. Moreover, the missile threats have become more complicated, now including not just ballistic missiles but also cruise missiles — and possibly stealthy ones — as well as hypersonic missiles that can evade interception. (There is a theory that a “plasma cloud” forms around a hypersonic missile, shrouding it from radar.)

Then reality set in. What one president can propose, another can cancel. The next Democratic president — and, inevitably, there will be one — will probably cancel Mr. Trump’s program because, to state the obvious, it will take far longer than Mr. Trump’s remaining three-plus years in office to make the Golden Dome a reality.

The Golden Dome, we are told, is a generational project. It will take at least 20 years to become a reality, if it ever does. It will likely be modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome defenses, which consist of three elements: long-range interceptors for ballistic missiles, midrange and short-range interceptors for cruise missiles and shorter-range attacks. The Israeli systems even have directed-energy weapons for the closest attacks.

U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the man in charge of the Golden Dome system, gave a classified briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. He reportedly outlined the proposed architecture of the Golden Dome system and told the committee about the proposed deployment schedule.

 The Office of Management and Budget is reportedly withholding funds. Contractors are lining up to grab pieces in the battle for contracts, but none has been approved. Why? When the need is urgent, as it is here, money should be allocated and shared with the Space Force quickly.

About $24.5 billion has been appropriated for the project, which was enacted under the president’s budget reconciliation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The president said that would be a down payment on the Golden Dome system.

Mr. Guetlein may not be ready. He is a smart man who shouldn’t be rushed. Approval of the architecture is the first step, and approvals are needed from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others.

Mr. Guetlein will have to build on or replace existing systems, such as our Space-Based Infrared System, designed to detect the launch of everything larger than a shoulder-fired missile. The system apparently cannot, however, detect cruise missiles and perhaps hypersonic missiles that are jet-powered. Russia reportedly has nuclear-powered missiles that the system may not be able to detect.

Mr. Guetlein will also want to include the development of new and better systems to improve on the small missile defenses we have deployed in Alaska and California. He will also probably want to include directed-energy weapons with the help of the Israelis.

Whatever Mr. Guetlein decides, the development of new weapon systems and the adaptation or decision to scrap existing systems will take an enormous amount of time.

We have a poor track record in developing new weapon systems. The development of a new fighter aircraft, for example, takes an average of 20 years to accomplish. The F-35 is a bad example. He will have to do better.

Contractors have a habit of overpromising when it comes to schedule. One solution: Make the contracts time-dependent. Contractors could be awarded additional financial incentives for meeting their timelines and penalized for failing to meet their goals.

Another partial solution to the time problem is to use the expertise of the Defense Advanced Projects Agency to vet contractors’ proposals. The weird geniuses at DARPA have a talent for discerning what is doable and what isn’t. They could be better judges of how much science and engineering can be pushed, and in what time period, than the folks at Space Command. They also have a talent for producing things with industry that others can’t.

Whatever Gen. Guetlein and his team decide on the architecture of the Golden Dome, the system must be moved quickly to deployment. The threats are out there and have to be answered by Mr. Trump’s Golden Dome.

• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and a contributing editor for The American Spectator.