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US President Donald Trump’s futuristic ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system will cost around $1.2bn (£882bn) to develop, deploy and operate over two decades, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates.
This figure is significantly higher than the initial $175 billion (£129 billion) that was set aside.
And the system designed to protect the United States from ballistic and cruise missiles might not even work. The new CBO report warns that the Golden Dome could be vulnerable to a full-scale attack from Russia or China.
Acquisition costs alone would total more than $1 trillion, including for interception layers and a space missile warning and tracking system, the state finance official said in a new report.
Just days after returning to the White House in January, Trump unveiled plans for the system, aimed at countering “next generation” air threats.
He said last year that the program would require an initial investment of $25 billion, for a total cost of $175 billion over time.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who requested the estimate in the report, said Tuesday: “The president’s so-called ‘Golden Dome’ is nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by American workers.”
The BBC has contacted the White House and Pentagon for comment.
Doubts have been raised about the ability of the United States to provide a comprehensive defense system for such a huge territory.
Officials have warned that existing systems have not kept pace with the increasingly sophisticated weapons possessed by potential adversaries.
Despite the Golden Dome’s projected costs, “the system could be overwhelmed by a large-scale attack mounted by a peer or near-peer adversary,” the CBO said.
An executive order calling for the creation of what was initially called “Iron Dome for America” noted that the threat posed by next-generation weapons had “become more intense and more complex” over time, a potentially “catastrophic” scenario for the United States.
A week into his second term, Trump ordered the Defense Department to submit plans for a system to deter and defend against air attacks, which the White House said at the time remained “the most catastrophic threat” facing the United States.
Trump said the system would consist of “next generation” technologies on land, sea and space, including space sensors and interceptors.
The system would be “even capable of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space,” the president declared last year.
SpaceX and Lockheed Martin last month won contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to develop prototype space missile interceptors for the system.
