Russia says it monitors US plan to build Golden Dome in Greenland

Why Trump says Greenland is vital to building the Golden Dome Russia said on Sunday (25) that it is closely monitoring the United States’ plans for the so-called Golden Dome, an anti-missile defense shield that American President Donald Trump wants to build in Greenland. ✅ Follow the g1 international news channel on WhatsApp What is known about the negotiations involving Trump and Greenland According to the Kremlin, the project is closely monitored by the Russian Armed Forces, which evaluate the objectives and scope of the system. The project, announced by the Republican government in May 2025, is valued at US$175 billion — the equivalent of R$1 trillion. He was cited again by Trump on January 14, amid intensifying pressure from Washington to annex Greenland to the US. The American president stated that the island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, is “vital” for the construction of the system. But what exactly is the Golden Dome and what does Trump expect from it? What is the Golden Dome? The “Golden Dome” — Golden Dome, in Portuguese — is an anti-missile defense system inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome. The project is being developed by the Pentagon, and Trump wants to complete it by the end of his term, in 2029. As soon as he assumed the US presidency, in January 2025, Trump signed a decree to take the idea forward. Among the justifications, he listed that the USA is threatened by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise attacks, and established that the country would adopt the objective of “peace through strength”. Posters show a simulation of what the Golden Dome will look like AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein How would the Golden Dome work? The Golden Dome was designed to be capable of detecting and stopping missiles in all four main stages of a possible attack: detecting and destroying them before launch; intercept them at the initial stage of the flight; stop them mid-air; stop them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target. Why does Trump need Greenland to build the Golden Dome? Situated between the US and Russia, Greenland has long been seen as an area of ​​great strategic importance, particularly with regard to Arctic security. The US already has a military base on the island, but has drastically reduced its presence in the country. There were around 10 thousand soldiers during the height of the Cold War; now there are fewer than 200. As it is the shortest route for a Russian ballistic missile to reach the U.S. mainland, Greenland could serve as one of the land bases for missile interceptors that are part of the Dome system. The island’s location is also strategic because, in addition to being surrounded by several important shipping routes, it is situated in the so-called GIUK gap, a naval corridor between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom that connects the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic. As Arctic ice melts due to climate change, new shipping routes are opening up that could drastically reduce sea travel times between Asia and Europe. Infographic shows the strategic position of Greenland Editoria de Arte/g1 The USA wants to install radars on land and at sea, around the island, to strengthen its surveillance capacity throughout this corridor, a passage route for Chinese and Russian vessels that Washington wants to monitor. “The US needs access to the Arctic, and today it doesn’t have much direct access. Greenland, on the other hand, offers a huge amount. They need air defenses increasingly closer to Russia to combat state-of-the-art weapons that are not defensible with currently available resources and Greenland also provides that”, highlighted Clayton Allen, head of operations at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, to American broadcaster CNBC in an interview. In addition to military implications, the island also has vast untapped reserves of oil, gas, critical minerals and rare earth elements — essential resources for electric vehicles, wind turbines, energy storage systems and defense technologies, important products for the US. US interest in Greenland dates back to the 19th century: understand what’s behind it Understand the details of the project In August, when presenting the project to 3,000 Defense contractors in Huntsville, Alabama, the Pentagon said that it was still in the early stages and justified the meeting by saying that it wanted to collect information “to support” the next steps. The Reuters agency had access to the information made available by the Trump administration. See below: The Golden Dome will include four layers: one satellite-based and three ground-based, with 11 short-range batteries located in the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. The first layer will be space-based for missile warning and tracking, as well as their defense. The three terrestrial layers will consist of missile interceptors, radar sets and, potentially, lasers. The US operates GMD launch bases in Southern California and Alaska. The plan would add a third base in the Midwest to combat additional threats. This new base would house state-of-the-art interceptors called NGI, which would be part of the “upper layer” together with the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system. One of the main objectives of the Golden Dome system is to neutralize targets during the so-called “boost phase” — the initial, predictable stage of a missile’s trajectory while it is still rising through Earth’s atmosphere. The project seeks to implement space-based interceptors, capable of reacting more quickly and intercepting enemy missiles more efficiently. The last lines of defense, called “lower layer” and “Limited Area Defense”, will feature new radars and existing systems, such as the Patriot missile defense system. Additionally, a new launcher will be deployed, designed to fire current and future interceptors against all types of threats.

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