U.S. President Donald Trump is moving forward with his massive “Golden Dome” missile defence project aimed at countering advanced Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons, triggering fresh warnings from Beijing and Moscow over growing global military tensions.
WEBDESK – MediaBites News
According to Pentagon officials briefing Congress, the proposed $185 billion Golden Dome system is designed to defend the United States against increasingly sophisticated missile threats, particularly hypersonic and long-range cruise missiles developed by China and Russia.
Senior Pentagon adviser Marc Berkowitz told lawmakers that the United States currently lacks reliable defences against modern hypersonic weapons capable of travelling at extremely high speeds while evading traditional missile interception systems.
“We have no defence against hypersonic weapons or cruise missiles today,” Berkowitz warned during a Senate hearing.
The Golden Dome project was originally unveiled by Donald Trump as a next-generation, multilayered missile shield that would include advanced space-based defence technologies.
The defence network is expected to become operational before the end of Trump’s current presidential term in January 2029.
Officials said the project’s cost has now climbed from an estimated $175 billion to nearly $185 billion after additional spending projections by the United States Space Force.
The announcement has sharply escalated tensions with China and Russia, whose leaders jointly condemned the missile shield at a recent summit in Beijing between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
In a joint statement, Beijing and Moscow warned that the Golden Dome posed “a clear threat to strategic stability” and could create “serious negative consequences for international security.”
Both countries accused Washington of accelerating militarisation and destabilising the global security balance through large-scale missile defence systems and expanded space-based military programmes.
The latest tensions come only days after Trump held high-level talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing in an attempt to stabilise increasingly strained U.S.-China relations.
Supporters of the Golden Dome argue the programme is necessary because China and Russia are rapidly advancing missile technologies that current American defence systems struggle to intercept.
Critics, however, have questioned both the enormous cost and the technical feasibility of the project, warning it could trigger a dangerous new global arms race focused on hypersonic weapons and military space systems.
The proposal reflects growing anxiety inside Washington over China’s expanding military power in the Indo-Pacific region and Russia’s continued investment in advanced strategic weapons.
