Defence expert shreds Trump’s Golden Dome scheme
Closer ties to Pentagon a very bad idea
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It takes this National Defence expert only five minutes to utterly take apart Trump’s Golden Dome missile defence scheme.
This interview features an analysis by Prof. Walter Dorn, a Defence Studies professor at the Royal Military College, discussing President Donald Trump’s ambitious “Golden Dome” missile defence initiative. Watch it here:
Video highlights
Trump’s Golden Dome plan aims to build a missile shield combining land, sea and space-based defences to protect the U.S.
Canada’s potential involvement is uncertain due to cost concerns and political reluctance to integrate closely with U.S. defence systems.
Experts question the feasibility of the Golden Dome given the sophisticated countermeasures adversaries possess.
Estimated initial cost of $175 billion puts massive financial strain and raises questions about burden-sharing among allies.
Russia and China condemn the system, labeling it a destabilizing threat that could escalate global arms races.
The deployment risks creating increased space debris and may spur offensive military buildups instead of enhancing security.
What’s Golden Dome?
The concept involves deploying a comprehensive missile defense system utilizing land, sea and space-based assets to protect the U.S., expanding on existing defensive measures like Israel’s Iron Dome. While the vision aims to enhance national security, Dorn raises significant technical and strategic concerns. He explains that such a system is not technically feasible at present due to the numerous ways adversaries could bypass or overwhelm it, potentially making the U.S. and its allies less safe.
“It will make America, Canada and the world less safe.”
Prof. Walter Dorn, Royal Military College
Should Canada join Trumps plan?
Canada should avoid supporting Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile shield proposals for several important reasons rooted in technical feasibility, financial burden, geopolitical stability, and sovereignty concerns.
1. It won’t work
First, from a technical standpoint, experts like Professor Walter Dorn of the Royal Military College have expressed that the Golden Dome system is infeasible. The shield would rely on an extensive network of land, sea and space-based assets to intercept incoming missiles, but adversaries could easily use decoys and countermeasures to overcome or saturate such defences. Thus, the shield may give a false sense of security while leaving gaps vulnerable to attack, ultimately making North America less safe.
2. It’s incredibly expensive
Financially, the Golden Dome project is enormously expensive, with estimates of $175 billion just to initiate the program, potentially ballooning to over $500 billion. Canada, which is already struggling to meet existing NATO defence spending commitments, would likely find it difficult to justify and afford participation.
Investment in a costly, technically doubtful system may detract from more practical defence needs, such as enhancing Arctic sovereignty and surveillance capabilities.
Trump said he expects Canada to pay $61 Billion U.S. ($84 Billion CAN) to be included in Golden Dome, or be annexed by the U.S. and pay nothing.
3. It will spark a new arms race in space
Geopolitically, joining the Golden Dome could destabilize global strategic balance. Russia and China have explicitly condemned the plan as destabilizing, and involvement risks fueling a new arms race, particularly in space-based weapons. As the shield encourages the deployment of offensive and defensive systems in extraterrestrial domains, it could provoke retaliatory buildups, increasing tensions and the possibility of conflict. The deployment of weapons in space may also generate space debris, threatening vital low Earth orbit environments for all countries.
4. It will undermine Canada’s sovereignty
Finally, from a sovereignty perspective, the Golden Dome plan may require deployment of U.S. radar and intercept systems on Canadian territory, potentially compromising Canadian control over its northern airspace and Arctic regions, including sensitive areas like the Northwest Passage. Canada has committed significant resources to defend the Arctic and assert sovereignty, and cooperation on the Golden Dome may undermine these efforts by subordinating key defence infrastructure to U.S. military goals. Politically, current Canadian government platforms emphasize distancing from the United States on such militarized initiatives to preserve autonomy and peace.
Canada should say no to Trump’s Golden Dome
Prof Walter Dorn says Canada should not support the Golden Dome missile shield proposal due to its questionable technical viability, exorbitant costs, potential to escalate global military tensions, jeopardization of Canadian sovereignty, and its likely detriment to genuinely effective and cooperative security strategies.
Most readers growing concerned about Carney’s ability to deal with Trump
In last week’s poll, I asked readers to answer this question: “Will Carney negotiate a good deal for Canada with Trump?”
Prime Minister Carney won the election because progressive voters felt he was best suited to deal with Trump, but two out of three PeaceQuest readers are having doubts. Most readers said they were growing more concerned (40%) or feeling he won’t negotiate a good deal (27%).
With the election results still fresh, a third of readers are still confident he’ll negotiate a good deal (6%), or are willing to giving him a chance (27%).
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Steve
If it comes from Trump, it is actually about more gold for himself and his "friends." Missile defenses are a very compelling idea that have never worked well despite enormous investments. For all we know, the US may already be mined with dozens of smuggled bombs.
Canada may decide its participation has merit but not before we have established a Canadian defence policy and rearmament. We don’t need it with changes underway and I’m doubtful of our participation in NORAD. Our adversaries and the needs of missile protection are American, not Canadian. We are not the target. But if we were, adversaries need only strike Southern Ontario where a high density (19) of Canadian nuclear plants are. A successful strike here would create a nuclear disaster that would drift and render the entire United States uninhabitable. Golden Dome will not protect the US in this type of strike. It’s impossible that the geniuses in the White House have missed this Achilles heel? Yes. So that is what I would be reminding US negotiators on funding golden dome. It’s their door if they wish to leave it open.