A generation ago, President Ronald Reagan envisioned a futuristic, state-of-the-art nuclear umbrella for the United States known as the “Strategic Defense Initiative” (SDI) – a program that critics would mockingly refer to as “Star Wars.” But 40 years later, President Donald Trump is building on the foundation Reagan laid with his “Golden Dome” plan that will revolutionize America’s missile defense infrastructure to counter new and emerging threats.
During his commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy over the weekend, Trump stressed the importance of the Golden Dome. “We’re building the Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland and to protect West Point from attack, and it will be completed before I leave office,” Trump said.
Trump has talked about the Golden Dome since the early days of his 2024 campaign, but passage of his “Big Beautiful Bill” through the House of Representatives last week has brought the bold proposal one step closer to fruition. Although it still has to pass the Senate, that legislation includes $150 billion in additional military funding, including $25 billion specifically for the Golden Dome.
Engineers have referred to the Golden Dome as a “system of systems,” which will track, target, intercept, and destroy incoming missiles – including the most advanced hypersonic weapons in the arsenals of the Chinese and Russian militaries. It also serves as a crucial response to the threat of space-based weapons, which Beijing and Moscow have indicated they plan to build in the coming decades.
While Golden Dome is modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome, it would be a significantly more complex and powerful system. As one expert described it to NPR, “It’s the difference between a kayak and a battleship.”
Iron Dome is composed of ground-based computers, radars, and interceptors, but Golden Dome will also be focused on the high ground – outer space. Early proposals have described a network of satellites that spot missiles as they leave the ground and then destroy them at the beginning of their flight.
That will likely sound familiar to those acquainted with Reagan’s SDI. All the way back in 1984, Reagan called for space-based technology, including lasers and particle-beam weapons, to end the doctrine of mutually assured destruction and once again make the United States the preeminent nuclear power in the world.
In 2006, I interviewed Thomas C. Reed, a Reagan national security official, about SDI. Nearly 20 years ago, while Trump was still building his real estate empire, Reed stressed the need for a program like Golden Dome and predicted that SDI, which fizzled out in the late 1980s, would be the foundation for it.
“President Reagan understood that if a spaceship could land on the moon, a weapon could be installed there,” Reed said. “The scientists also told the president that humanity would soon be exploring space for resources and energy, which would be a factor in future U.S. prosperity and growth.”
Trump recognized this as well during his first term when he established the Space Force as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. “Our adversaries are weaponizing Earth’s orbits with new technology targeting American satellites that are critical to both battlefield operations and our way of life at home,” Trump said in 2019. “Our freedom to operate in space is also essential to detecting and destroying any missile launched against the United States.”
China’s space program presents a particularly acute threat to U.S. national security. Last year, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar module collected and returned to Earth the first-ever samples from the far side of the Moon, and Beijing has said it wants to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030. Last year, China and Russia also agreed to consider installing a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2035, along with a robotic base, unmanned vehicles, and a high-speed lunar communication network.
While Beijing has insisted that it has only commercial interests in space, the military implications of Chinese bases in near-Earth orbit or on the Moon are impossible to ignore. U.S. and Western strategists believe that Russia and China, in tandem, have been working to turn space into another battleground to threaten the United States and its allies.
“We observe China conducting tests on orbiters, rovers, and landers to outpace competitors and to inflict potential harm if needed,” stated a high-ranking official involved in space policy for a European country. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to discuss sensitive issues. “Describing these missions as peaceful is misleading,” he asserted. “Most of these space vehicles are dual-use and will present a significant military threat since they can already target U.S. satellites and spacecraft.”
His remarks align with the conclusion of the U.S. Space Force, which observed “near-peer” adversaries simulating orbital combat designed to disrupt and destroy American satellites and other space objects. U.S. officials have also testified to Congress that Beijing has developed satellites with robotic arms and directed energy weapons that could be used to damage other satellites.
Lt. Col. Quán Chāngpǔ, who was involved in war planning against the United States and its allies under the order of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and defected to the West in the early 1990s, told me that Beijing does not differentiate between military and civilian missions in space. “From the first space launch, the CCP treated these missions as war preparations,” he said.
Ronald Reagan dreamed of a day when American skies would no longer be a vulnerability, but a frontier of defense. Trump is turning that vision into reality. As China and Russia escalate their space ambitions and develop weapons designed to neutralize the United States’ technological edge, America cannot afford to lag behind.
The threats of tomorrow – hypersonic missiles, orbital lasers, satellite killers – are no longer science fiction. They are taking shape in enemy laboratories and being tested in orbit. The Golden Dome answers this challenge not with fear, but with resolve. It embodies a distinctly American approach by combining innovation, strength, and foresight to protect peace through superiority.
If the 20th century was defined by the arms race on Earth, the 21st will be defined by dominance in space. Reagan saw that. Trump understands it. And now, with Golden Dome, the United States is preparing not just to defend its homeland, but to shape the strategic balance of the future.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
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