Golden Cup: The Trump reveals the billion - dollar concept of the new antiaircraft system

U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled the concept of the future air defense program: The Golden Cup.

This multitribal antiaircraft, worth 175 billion dollars, means that the U.S. will put weapons in space for the first time.

Speaking Tuesday from Ovale Office, Trumpi said he expects the “system to start working fully before my mandate is completed”, which ends in 2029, and to have the ability to stop the “even if they are issued from space”.

An American official said it is more likely that this complex system will have its initial capacity by then.

Trump also announced that General Michael Guetley, who currently serves as deputy chief of space operations, will be responsible for overseeing the Golden Cup's progress.

The Golden Cup is designed to include capacity, land and space, which are able to detect and prevent missiles in the four main stages of a possible attack: discovery and destruction before launch, ban on the earliest phase of flight, ban on their air travel, or stopping in recent minutes during their fall over the target.

Over the past few months, Pentagon planners have developed options which the American official described as medium, high and extremely high “ ” based on their costs involving antiaircraft missiles in space. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as these plans have not yet been made public.

The difference between three versions lies mainly in the number of satellites and sensors, and for the first time, antiaircraft missiles from purchase space.

The Congress Budget Office estimated this month that only the components of the Golden Cup, located in space, could cost up to $542 billion over the next 20 years. Trump has requested an initial $25 billion financing for the programme in his tax reduction bill, which is going through Congress.

The Pentagon has been warning for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated protection measures are needed. The satellites and additional antiaircraft missiles of the Golden Cup, which make up the most cost of the program, will focus on stopping advanced missiles in early stages or during flight.

Space weapons envisioned for the Golden Cup “represent new and developing requests for missions that have never been carried out before by military space organisations”, said General Chance Saltzman, chief of the US Space Force, before lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.

China and Russia have placed offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with the ability to disable important American satellites, making the US vulnerable to attacks.

Last year, the U.S. said Russia was developing a nuclear weapon in space that could stay in orbit for a long time and then launch an explosion that would destroy the satellites around it.

Trump said on Tuesday that he has not yet spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Golden Cup programme, “but in due time, we will do it”, he told reporters at the White House.

In a joint statement earlier this month, China and Russia called the idea of the Golden Cup “extremely destabilising from nature”, warning that it would turn the external “into an environment for weapons deployment and a arena for armed confrontation”.

Still no money for the project, and the Golden Cup is generally “still in the conceptual phase”, said new Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, during a hearing session in the Senate on Tuesday.

While the president chose the concept he wanted, the Pentagon is still developing the conditions the Golden Cup will have to meet that means this is not the usual way new systems are developed.

The US Pentagon and Northern Command are still drafting what is known as the initial capacity document, the US official said. This is how the North Command, which is responsible for protecting the homeland, identifies what the system should do.

The U.S. already has a lot of missile protection capacity, such as missile batteries, Patriot, which the U.S. has given Ukraine to protect against missiles, as well as a series of satellites in orbit to detect missile concessions. Some of those existing systems will be included in the Golden Cup.

Trump ordered the Pentagon to develop antiaircraft missiles for space with an executive order during the first week of his presidency. / REL/ Periscopi/