China, Russia, and North Korea have all expressed strong opposition to the Trump administration’s next-generation missile defense system plan, ‘Golden Dome.’ This development appears to signal an acceleration in global arms competition.
Following the end of the Cold War, a period of arms control prevailed for decades, but now there are concerns that we may be returning to a past characterized by fears of nuclear war and human annihilation. The Wall Street Journal noted on the 27th that President Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ plan has provoked the three nations North Korea, China, and Russia, which possess the weaponry that poses the greatest threat to the U.S. homeland.
The ‘Golden Dome’ system plans to deploy next-generation technologies, including space-based sensors and interceptors, on land, at sea, and in space. The system is expected to use satellites equipped with laser weapons to intercept and destroy missiles launched by adversarial nations during their ascent or terminal phases. President Trump has set a goal for the Golden Dome to be operational by January 2029, before his term concludes.
In response, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement criticizing the Golden Dome plan, pointing to the potential for space to become a venue for military deployment and conflicts. North Korea also publicly denounced the Golden Dome plan on the 27th, calling it a “script for space nuclear war.”
Experts have raised concerns that these nations might accelerate their efforts to develop new missiles that the Golden Dome can’t stop and to build up their nuclear arsenals. Some also argue that the Golden Dome plan could exacerbate the arms race among major powers, potentially putting the U.S. in a more dangerous situation.
Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the UNIDIR, criticized missile defense as an illusion that instills a false sense of security, ultimately driving all involved nations to vastly increase their missile stockpiles, leading to a worst-case scenario for both the West and China-Russia. He stated that any form of missile defense system can only intercept up to 85% of missiles targeted at a country.
The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) previously warned that intercepting just one or two missiles aimed at the U.S. would require over 1,000 interceptor satellites, according to the WSJ.
However, considering that China and Russia are already intensively developing advanced missiles and space weapons that could neutralize existing missile defenses, proponents argue that the Golden Dome might be a necessary choice. According to the WSJ, the U.S. is falling behind in hypersonic weaponry, with China having tested a missile in 2021 capable of circumnavigating the globe at 15,000 miles per hour (about 19.7 times the speed of sound) and hitting targets within China.
In 2018, President Putin unveiled a new hypersonic missile, accompanied by a video of it headed toward the U.S. West Coast, proclaiming it as an unstoppable weapon. Anthony Mastaler, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Space Forces, remarked at a space conference in Australia on the 27th about observing maneuvers by Chinese satellites that could be described as close combat in space, indicating China’s active preparations for challenges against the U.S. and its allies in the space domain.
Ultimately, the Golden Dome plan seems to implicitly acknowledge that the era of arms control is over and that mutual assured destruction is no longer sufficient to deter nuclear warfare, as analyzed by the WSJ.
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), noted that while the arms buildup has not yet reached early Cold War levels, all current dynamics and elements visibly suggest the potential for triggering a nuclear arms race.