The Trillion Dollar Boondoggle

Missile defense is an enormous waste of resources.

According to a new CBO estimate, the president’s missile defense boondoggle will be extremely expensive:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense shield could cost about $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy and operate over 20 years, a figure that dwarfs a $185 billion price tag offered by the program's Pentagon director.

Missile defense is an enormous waste of resources. It costs an eye-watering amount of money, and it doesn’t provide much defense at all. To ensure that this system can shoot down 10 ICBMs, there will have to be many thousands of interceptors. The estimate puts that figure at 7,800. Even if it worked perfectly, it would be very easy to overwhelm with more missiles.

This missile defense system would be simultaneously ineffective and provocative.