Recently inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump has launched his first global defense program: the creation of a nationwide missile defense system. The corresponding order, which obliges the Pentagon to present the concept of this system within 60 days, is already in effect. It also outlines what exactly the new missile defense system should do and what it should consist of.
The architecture of the missile defense system must shield the country from ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles. To do this, it needs to deploy means of tracking and intercepting these threats, both during the midcourse in space and at the terminal stage (for which new space interceptors will be created), and systems for destroying missiles before their launch or at the initial stage of flight.
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A separate clause orders the development and deployment of "non-kinetic capabilities to augment the kinetic defeat of ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks." The explanation of this article will probably appear only later but it seems to be about lasers again.
"Again", because, as mentioned in the preamble of the executive order, in 1983 Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative to create a missile defense system but it was curtailed before it could be implemented. As Defense Express reminds, the initiative was characterized by its active use of lasers, it even was aptly nicknamed the Star Wars program.
That said, the demand outlined in Donald Trump's order is partly similar to two existing programs. One is the ongoing missile defense project that involves the creation of a network of satellites called Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). It is designed to detect and track ballistic or hypersonic missiles and guide interceptors to destroy them.

The second similar undertaking is Brilliant Pebbles, this concept appeared in 1987 and suggested creating a constellation of thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit and equipped with small missiles. At the time, this concept ultimately prevailed over the simultaneously developed Excalibur project to create satellites with lasers.
For one reason, they weren't able to make working combat lasers, and secondly, large space platforms carrying directed energy weapons were vulnerable to anti-satellite attacks. On the other hand, dealing with a multitude of small satellites equipped with technologically less demanding missiles would be much more difficult for the adversary. However, the Cold War ended, and the project was closed in 1993.

Evidently, both projects — to deploy sensors and interceptors — require a fairly large number of carrier satellites, and also launch vehicles to put them into orbit. Nowadays, much of the launch market belongs to SpaceX, with 134 out of 154 launches total (excluding experimental ones with Starship) carried out in 2024 from US spaceports.
Besides, this company currently has a proven system for deploying thousands of miniature satellites in low Earth orbit, and is now actively testing Starship rocket that will be able to launch an impressive 100 to 150 tons of cargo into low orbit, or 27 tons into geostationary orbit.
Against this background, the fact that Elon Musk, not only a multibillionaire but also one of the main sponsors of Trump's election campaign and now the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, is the owner of SpaceX doesn't look like just a coincidence.
Although, objectively speaking, without these technologies, projects requiring sending myriads of satellites into orbit either cannot be implemented at all, or need far more money. Compared to 40 years ago, the cost of the satellites themselves and launching them into space — a key challenge of the 1980s' Strategic Defense Initiative, has a solution.
Still, other challenges, like terminal stage interception remain relevant. And overall, Trump's entire project will take a lot of effort from the entire U.S. defense industry.
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