A senior Russian official has warned President Donald Trump's new defense plans, including for the vast Golden Dome missile shield currently in development, will lead to a new space "arms race" and could be "devastating." "The risks of turning outer space into an arena of armed confrontation have ceased to be hypothetical," Russia's envoy to the UN in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said in remarks reported by Russia's Tass state news agency on Thursday. "Its consequences will be devastating for all of humanity," he added. Although militaries across the globe already use satellites for intelligence gathering, communications, missile warnings and navigation, putting weapons in orbit has been controversial for decades.
A major part of the planned design for the Golden Dome will be for orbiting interceptors to knock out incoming missile attacks, with early-warning sensors positioned in space, although the U.S. government and military haven't released full breakdowns of how the system would be put together. Newsweek has contacted the White House and the Department of Defense via email. Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping jointly said in May 2025 the proposed outline for the futuristic Golden Dome was an "obvious threat to strategic stability," while North Korea said the program smacked of "self-righteousness" and "arrogance." The Trump administration says the project is needed to counter next-generation attacks on U.S. soil, like fast-moving ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons able to travel at more than five times the speed of sound.
Moscow and Beijing have heavily invested in hypersonic programs, whereas the U.S. and NATO have lagged behind in developing these types of weapons. Advocates for the Golden Dome say technology is now advanced enough to build a partially space-based system. Trump has explicitly linked the project to an ultimately shelved initiative kicked off by the late Republican President Ronald Reagan during the arms race of the Cold War, which was popularly dubbed "Star Wars" because of plans to intercept Soviet missiles with lasers in space.
But critics argue despite the ballooning projected costs, Trump's Golden Dome may not protect the U.S. from a full-scale attack by Russia or China. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)—the nonpartisan agency that advises American lawmakers on funding—said in May the "Golden Dome" will cost roughly $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, far exceeding the initial $175 billion allocated to the project. Up to 70 percent of the acquisition costs and 60 percent of the total bill would be linked to the space-based components, the CBO said.
The CBO has also said that while the Golden Dome could cope with a "small-scale" assault or a North Korean attack, it would be "overwhelmed by a full-scale attack" from a country like Russia or China. A dozen companies are competing to develop this space-based layer, including defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Space Force says it will be able to show off an "initial capability" by 2028.
In separate remarks on Wednesday, senior CBO official David Mosher said the agency hadn't been able to contact the team in charge of the Golden Dome in the Pentagon and hadn't secured briefings on the program, despite requesting updates. "I know nothing about what they’re actually building," he said during an appearance at the Brookings Institution. Last year, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and three other Democratic lawmakers said the Golden Dome would be "detrimental to U.S. and global security by igniting a nuclear arms race with Russia and China." The Golden Dome is expected to cover the U.S. mainland, Alaska and Hawaii.
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