Benjamin Giltner
Golden Dome—a project so nonsensical that it shouldn’t require constant criticism to kill it. And yet, here we are. As it turns out, the costs of this project are worse than initially thought.
A recent Congressional Budget Office report estimates that the Trump administration’s Golden Dome project will cost a total of $1.2 trillion. By comparison, this is 80 percent of the administration’s requested $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027. And this amount will give the United States enough interceptors to shoot down only a small number of missiles coming from Russia and China.
In military strategy, the ends must match the means. Weapons have to serve a clear purpose. Yet, time and again, scientists and nuclear deterrence experts have explained that a homeland missile defense infrastructure is infeasible. Such a system would fail to protect Americans from attacking missiles and would increase the chances of an adversary launching a preemptive attack.
The groups that benefit from Golden Dome will be the contractors who win bids to build the system, members of Congress whose districts benefit from more defense manufacturing, and the military branches involved in the project. This is the work of the “Iron Triangle” at its finest. Where US national interests and the American people’s interests fit in remains to be seen.
Golden Dome cheerleaders, however, argue that even if the system fails to stop all attacking missiles, stopping some is still better than none. This is an argument straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Thinking that somehow tens of millions of people killed is better than hundreds of millions borders on insanity. Nuclear weapons aren’t just another weapon. Even so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons still have at least a 300-ton explosive yield, which would result in around 9,000 deaths if launched at Washington, DC. Rather than attempting to “win” a nuclear war, policymakers should find ways to avoid using these weapons in the first place.
Although complete nuclear disarmament may be infeasible, there are more pragmatic and proven ways to reduce the chances of using nuclear weapons. America’s goal, as should be the world’s, is to avoid launching these weapons of mass destruction—or one might say to “deter” their use. Building Golden Dome would move America further from this goal.
