The architecture of global security is undergoing a radical transformation. Warfare is no longer confined to borders or airspace; it is now being redefined beyond Earth’s atmosphere, in orbit. U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent announcement of the “Golden Dome” project is emblematic of this shift. For the first time, the U.S. has unveiled plans for a comprehensive space-based missile defense system, designed not only to counter hypersonic and ballistic missiles but also to shield against direct threats emerging from space.
The initiative is being led by the U.S. Space Command. The system will combine artificial intelligence-powered radar networks, orbital sensors and kinetic interceptors to detect and neutralize threats before they even reenter the atmosphere. A significant step in this direction came on May 21, 2025, when a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, successfully completing a 4,200-mile (6,759-kilometer) test flight. Far from routine, the launch signaled the operational contours of a future where space becomes the first line of defense.
The Golden Dome’s initial funding is set at $175 billion, with long-term projections from the Congressional Budget Office suggesting costs may exceed $500 billion. Major private defense and aerospace corporations, including SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Palantir, have been integrated into the program. Trump has described the system as “America’s survival architecture,” while U.S. Space Command leader Gen. Michael Guetlein encapsulates the strategy in one phrase: “survival at orbital speed.”
Yet the U.S. is far from alone in militarizing space. China and Russia have been actively investing in orbital warfare capabilities for years. In 2021, China tested a hypersonic glide vehicle that orbited the Earth before striking its target, bypassing traditional radar and missile defense systems. The test caught Western intelligence off guard and highlighted a new level of strategic unpredictability. China’s Shijian-21 satellite, equipped with a robotic arm capable of manipulating other satellites, further demonstrated its growing capacity for orbital control and offensive maneuvering. Beijing aims to integrate this capability into its BeiDou satellite navigation system and achieve full strategic dominance in orbit by 2035.
Russia, meanwhile, is pursuing a more asymmetric but equally potent approach. In 2022, it conducted a live anti-satellite (ASAT) test using its Nudol missile system, destroying one of its own satellites. The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, capable of reaching speeds over 27,000 kilometers per hour, can bypass conventional interceptors. Russia is also developing high-powered laser systems such as the Peresvet, designed to blind or disable adversary satellites in orbit.
While the U.S. Golden Dome initiative has captured global attention, other nations quietly establish their space defense infrastructures. India demonstrated its ASAT capabilities in 2019 with “Mission Shakti” and soon after launched its own Space Defense Agency. France formed its Space Command in 2019, with President Emmanuel Macron declaring that space would now be an “arena of response.” Japan’s Ministry of Defense established a Space Operations Squadron to counter threats from China and North Korea with expanded orbital surveillance systems. Israel, meanwhile, is adapting its Iron Dome system into an orbital form – known as “Iron Beam” – based on high-energy laser interception technology.
Space is no longer just a technological arena; it is rapidly becoming a theater of deterrence. A new doctrine is taking shape – one that requires not only national airspace control but also orbital supremacy. Threats no longer emerge solely from enemy lines on Earth, but from invisible adversaries in orbit and hypersonic projectiles flying beneath the radar. If 20th-century deterrence was defined by mutually assured destruction, the 21st may be governed by a far more ambitious formula: orbital assured denial. The threat must be eliminated before gravity even has a chance to act. The Golden Dome is the first architectural statement of that doctrine.
