Trump's 'Golden Dome' missile system will cost $1.2 trillion and 'would not stop all-out attack'

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the anti-missile system would cost significantly more than the initial sum of $175billion (£129billion).

The system is designed to shield the US against ballistic and cruise missiles - but it may not even work.

The Dome could be vulnerable to a "full-scale attack" by Russia and China, the CBO said.

Acquisition costs for the tech alone would cost £1tn for the interceptor layers and a space-based missile warning and tracking system.

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The US President unveiled the grand plan at the White House in January aimed at protecting the US from "next-generation" aerial threats.

Last year he said the system would cost $25bn, with a total investment of $175bn over time.

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who requested the estimate in the report, said on Tuesday: "The President's so-called 'Golden Dome' is nothing more than a massive giveaway to ​defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans."

An executive order calling for the creation for the "Iron Dome for America" said aerial weapons have "become more intense and complex" over time and potentially "catastrophic" for the US.

A week into his second term as president, Trump ordered the defence department to submit plans for a Dome system that would deter and defend against aerial attacks.

The system would be "capable even of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space", the president said last year.

SpaceX and Lockheed Martin won contracts last month worth up to $3.2bn to develop space-based missile interceptor prototypes for the system.