[LINK] Assembling supercomputers in space

[Tom Worthington]

On 5/22/25 10:01, Antony Barry wrote:

> Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” proposal is a sweeping, multilayered missile
> defense initiative aimed at protecting the United States  ...

President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) aka "Star Wars" 
V2? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative

> ... place U.S. missile interceptors and sensors in orbit ...

The USA already has sensors in orbit to detect missile launches. The 
Regan era proposal included space based interceptors, but this was 
technically and politically problematic.

> ... pre-launch to their final descent—anywhere in the world ...

Such a system could be used to threaten any target anywhere in the world 
at any time. As well as being a terror weapon, it would be problematic 
for any leader to have.

> ... defend the entire U.S. ...

SDI started off to protect the USA, but got more and more limited. The 
current proposal will likely also be scaled back to protect key military 
and political sites. That can be done with ground based missiles and 
lasers, at less cost, and risk.

> ... centralized command structure ...

How you control such a system is a major challenge. It would have to be 
partly automatic, with poses major risks.

This is also an issue for Australia, as our newer warships have the 
capability to shoot down ballistic missiles (my students help develop 
the radar for this). Should Australia have its own capability for this? 
Should we be part of any US system?

ps: Not all President Trump's ideas are crazy. He recnely floated the 
idea of a two engine F-35 fighter. 
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/05/16/pentagon-silent-aviation-experts-baffled-by-trumps-fighter-comments/

I wrote a blog post proposing this 15 years ago: 
https://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/11/proposed-f-35d-long-range-variant.html


-- 
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
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