Trump's new 'Star Wars' initiative aims to revive US space defence

The document titled "The Iron Dome for America" concerning the construction of a "next-generation missile defence shield" is currently a general directive. Signed by Donald Trump, it requires the Secretary of Defense to present the President with a plan for the defence system within 60 days.

Its task will be to protect the United States from ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, advanced cruise missiles, and other new-generation aerial attacks. The threat is to be neutralised both during the missiles' flight and their descent towards the target, as well as—significantly broadening the future system's capabilities—before launch and during the launch phase.

An element of this system will be sensors deployed in space, placed into orbit as part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) programme developed since 2018, and its component, the early warning system called HBTSS (Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor).

These solutions involve placing hundreds of satellites in space, allowing for the creation of a multi-layered sensor network. Early threat detection and rapid communication are intended to identify threats early enough to counteract them.

The construction of such a system—defensive in theory—also means an increase in offensive capabilities. A country capable of defending against a first attack also has the capability to repel retaliatory strikes.

The space element of the defence system may evoke the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) from over 30 years ago, a Reagan-era project. These associations are confirmed by the directive itself.

It includes a paragraph reminding that President Reagan's attempt to build an anti-ballistic defence system brought technological advancements but was cancelled before achieving its goal.

The document also concludes that over recent decades, the threat from strategic weapons has increased. While it doesn't mention countries perceived as unfriendly by the US by name, it can be interpreted as a reference to the rapid development of missile weapons in North Korea or Iran.

Among the goals of building the new system, aside from general provisions about ensuring safety for "citizens and critical infrastructure against — any foreign aerial attack on the Homeland."

An important part of the document is also devoted to allies. The presidential directive clearly specifies the intention to increase the intensity of cooperation with foreign partners to improve the protection of "ally populations and troops and of forward-deployed United States troops."

The document also includes the intention to explore how the United States can enhance and expedite the delivery of missile defence capabilities to its allies and partners.

Comparing Donald Trump's plans to Ronald Reagan's Star Wars is intriguing but is based on more than just a simple resemblance to space. Trump's "Star Wars" might have more in common with Reagan's "Star Wars" than initially expected.

The SDI programme is credited as one of the factors that forced the USSR into a costly arms race, leading to its collapse and securing America's global hegemony for the following 30 years.

The success of the "Iron Dome for America," especially its space component, could once again give the US an edge, reducing the risk of America suffering severe losses from attacks carried out with strategic weapons.

The development of such capabilities can also be seen as an attempt by Washington to impose confrontation on US rivals, like China, in a domain where America still has an advantage.

This results from the ability to quickly build and rebuild space infrastructure. The first issue is ensured by radically lowering the cost of launching payloads into space, possible partly due to SpaceX's successes. China, building its Qianfan satellite constellation or GuoWang, is also dynamically, although not without challenges, developing its capabilities in this area.

At the same time, American missions like Victus Nox have demonstrated the possibility of shortening the preparation time for space flights from months to dozens of hours—during a test launch, a satellite was placed in orbit just 27 hours after the decision was made. Washington can therefore not only launch hundreds of satellites into orbit but—if they are destroyed—can quickly rebuild its space capabilities, which currently gives it an advantage over global rivals.