Inside Trump's Golden Dome plan: Here's how control of Greenland can protect US from missile attacks

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump’s proposed massive new national defense shield in Greenland, dubbed the "Golden Dome for America", has garnered a lot of attention and curiosity.

The  "multilayered defense system", partly inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, is to be designed to protect the United States from foreign threats. 

It is reportedly set to be a high-tech dome made of "next-generation technologies" deployed on "land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors."

Golden Dome in Greenland to shield entire USA

Trump has said that "The Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space." 

To make the Golden Dome work, the military needs to be able to hit a missile as soon as it takes off. 

Retired General Frank McKenzie explained that "The time to intercept a missile is when it launches," because that is when the missile is on "a highly predictable" path and is easiest to hit. 

A key part of this plan involves Greenland, a Danish island territory in the Arctic.

The focus on Greenland stems from the Arctic’s role as a key corridor for ballistic missile trajectories from Russia and China toward the US East Coast.

Multi-layered defense to be high cost

Building such a huge system will be very expensive as the Congressional Budget Office thinks just the parts in space could cost $542 billion. 

Even though that is a lot of money, Gen McKenzie believes it is necessary to stop threats from countries like North Korea or Iran, saying the system is "certainly are worth the cost that would be necessary to work the system." 

Defense giants like Lockheed Martin are already on board, calling the project a "revolutionary concept" and comparing it to the race to build the first nuclear bomb.

"This is a Manhattan Project-scale mission, one that is both urgent and crucial to America's security," Lockheed Martin noted.

However, the plan is still mostly an idea for now. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in May 2025 that the project is "still in the conceptual stage" and doesn't have official funding yet. 

Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska says the US needs this upgrade because technology has changed.

He pointed out that "We have new threats. We have hypersonics, we have drones. We have, heck, even we've seen it here in Alaska, spy balloons," and argued that the US needs a "layered defense" that uses different types of technology working together to keep the country safe.

Israel’s Iron Dome inspires Golden Dome

The idea for the Golden Dome was partially inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome, which stops short-range rockets. 

During a speech in 2025, the president said, "Israel has it, other places have it, and the United States should have it, too." 

But while Israel’s system is for small rockets, the Golden Dome would try to stop much larger nuclear missiles. 

China is not happy about this and has asked the US to stop, saying the plan "heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield" and "fuels an arms race." China and Russia both worry that the dome will make the world less stable.

American leaders disagree with those complaints as Gen. McKenzie said, "It's kind of humorous that the Chinese would talk about militarizing space," suggesting they are already doing the same thing. 

He insists that the Golden Dome is "an inherently defensive system" meant only for protection.