Defence Minister Judith Collins endorses Trump's Golden Dome
By Phil Pennington of RNZ
US President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defence project has won endorsement from New Zealand.
The vision is of a vast shield of sensors, missiles and even laser beams designed to take out conventional and nuclear missiles.
Critics of the proposed system say it may fuel an arms race in space, and China and Russia have condemned it.
But Defence Minister Judith Collins told a security summit in Singapore it was justified.
"It's a defence mechanism," she said during a panel on cyber, space and undersea challenges.
"I don't see it as an attack mechanism. It's a defence mechanism.
"And if people did not feel they needed to defend themselves, they wouldn't waste the money on it."
The chorus of major defence contractors signalling their readiness to work on the Golden Dome has been growing, joined recently by New Zealand-founded and California-based company Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab used a $460 million acquisition of the parent company of Arizona firm Geost, to state how the deal secured "core capabilities" for achieving Pentagon goals in space, "like the proposed Golden Dome".
Prime (major) contractor Lockheed Martin said on its website: "This next generation defence shield will identify incoming projectiles, calculate trajectory and deploy interceptor missiles to destroy them mid-flight, safeguarding the homeland and projecting American Strength [sic]."
SpaceX, controversial software innovator Palantir and drone-maker Anduril also feature in media reports and speculation about the Dome.
Trump has said it would be operational by the end of his term and over the next decade cost $300 billion, but many analysts doubt the timing, while the Congressional Budget Office has estimated it could cost as much as $1.4 trillion over two decades.
Lockheed called it "a Manhattan Project-scale mission".
Minister Collins told the Shangri-La Dialogue that taxpayers' money was hard-fought for.
"Let me tell you, we are defence ministers, we know how that feels, we have to go in every day and try to get more money.
"And we're not going to do it unless there's some reason to do it. So you know, don't be aggressive in space, we won't need Golden Dome or any other sort of dome."
Collins told the summit New Zealand's proportion of defence spending on emerging technology would grow, noting that tech made in New Zealand was being used in the Ukraine war.
"We are going to be using some of that," she said.
Tauranga company Syos makes drones that have been used in Ukraine. 'Everyone wants a piece'
China, Russia and North Korea have all condemned Trump's revival of a high-tech form of the Ronald-Reagan era Star Wars missile defence plan, 400 times larger than Israel's Iron Dome.
Despite this and critics' fears, defence and high-tech military-linked contractors have begun jockeying for action.
"Everyone Wants a Piece of Trump's 'Golden Dome' Defense Plan," a Wall Street Journal headline said.
Reuters has reported that Elon Musk's SpaceX - the most prolific satellite launcher ever - was in partnership with two tech firms that had been muscling into the defence industry to become Golden Dome frontrunners.
The Times of India asked if the Dome was a shield for the US "or just to make Elon Musk richer?"
One of Musk's reported partners is Anduril, a supercharged start-up that has plans for a billion-dollar military drone factory, and the other is New Zealand citizen Peter Thiel's software firm Palantir.
The US Army recently tested a Palantir system called Maven for rapid targeting, saying it allowed a 20-person unit to do more than a 2000-strong unit was able to target during the 2003 Iraq war.
The track record with the US Army had boosted Palantir, market analysts said.
Smart targeting is envisaged as part of Golden Dome, with the Pentagon saying that by 2029 it would deploy smart sensors in space that can distinguish missile threats from clutter.
Canada's Globe and Mail reported a range of stocks were benefiting from Trump's talk of the Golden Dome, noting that Palantir was now worth more than Lockheed Martin.
The SpaceX link-up with tech firms reported by Reuters, is a challenge to the entrenched defence industry players like Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and RTX (Raytheon), though these "primes" do figure in an Act introduced in February to enable Golden Dome, alongside a Trump executive order.
Rocket Lab said in its media release citing the Golden Dome it was "positioning itself as disruptive prime to US national security".
The Street financial news site said the Geost deal put the company that launches out of both Mahia and Virginia, "firmly in the national security conversation".
America's Defence Intelligence Agency in mid-May profiled the forecast missile threat across six categories, including two hypersonics and two types of nuclear ballistic missiles.
The Chatham House thinktank said the Golden Dome might suck resources from regional missile defence and cyber resilience, to go into unproven shield technology.
"The plan also has potentially dangerous strategic consequences," it said.
"A system that aspires to make the US invulnerable to missile attack would almost certainly be seen by its adversaries as an attempt to undermine the logic of nuclear deterrence. If Washington is perceived to be developing a shield that could one day neutralise a retaliatory nuclear strike, it risks triggering a dangerous global arms race."
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