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The United States’ ambitious “golden dome” missile defence program should be complete within three years, Donald Trump has declared.
During an Oval Office briefing on Tuesday, the President also revealed Space Force’s General Michael Guetlein would lead the project, and said his administration had approved an “architecture” for the plan.
Trump compared the US$175 billion Golden Dome to Ronald Reagan’s similar 1980s Star Wars project, which never came to fruition.
“We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland,” Trump said, adding the success rate is “very close to 100 per cent”.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they’re launched from space. And we will have the best system ever.
“We helped Israel with theirs, and it was very successful, and now we have technology that’s even far advanced from that … hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, all of them will be knocked out of the air.”
The news comes after Defence Connect’s sister brand, Space Connect, announced yesterday that two of L3Harris’ most senior executives would speak at the Australian Space Summit & Exhibition next week.
The company has emerged as a frontrunner to be involved in the Golden Dome after demonstrating its technology to track hypersonic missiles from space – a breakthrough previously thought to be near-impossible to accomplish.
Geoffrey Adams is the senior mission architect of the prime’s missile defence product line, based in Indiana, while Alan Clements is the local chief executive, based in Canberra.
Clements will speak on the AUKUS panel alongside former prime minister Scott Morrison and the US Space Force, while Adams will speak on the hypersonic panel.
L3Harris joins a line-up of global industry figures, including recent Australian astronaut Eric Philips, NASA’s former chief technologist A.C. Charania, and Dr Kelly Fast, who currently oversees NASA’s Planetary Defense department.
