The Inside Story Podcast What is the Golden Dome defence system Trump announced?
May 22, 2025
Join Micheal O'Hanlon, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Marina Mirren, a Postdoctoral Researcher at King's College, as they dive into the ambitious Golden Dome defense system. They discuss its potential to protect the U.S. from advanced missile threats and the looming risk of a new arms race. The conversation reveals challenges of space-based defense, the urgency of upgrades in response to global threats from countries like North Korea and Russia, and the importance of maintaining international security while supporting U.S. allies.
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Economic Context Shapes Arms Race
- Updating and expanding US missile defense is needed but execution matters due to potential arms race risks.
- Economic context differs from Cold War; today's rivals like China may sustain an arms race better.
Space Weapons Pose Huge Challenges
- Space-based interceptors or lasers pose huge technical and debris challenges, making ground-based defense more feasible.
- Weaponizing space escalates tensions and is far from affordable or practical now.
Dual-Use Satellites & Risks
- Russia uses inspector satellites and China robotic arms for dual-use satellites that can damage adversaries.
- Kinetic attacks on such satellites risk escalation, and there is no clear defense strategy against them yet.