DONALD Trump has unveiled plans for a high-tech “Golden Dome” missile defence system, which the president claims should be operational by the end of his term in office.

The futuristic concept announced by Trump would see American weapons put in space for the first time ever.

Trump had already signalled his intent to set up a Golden Dome following his return to the White House, calling missile attacks the “most catastrophic threat facing the United States”.

The idea is modelled on Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, which uses radar to detect incoming missiles and calculates which ones pose a threat to populated areas.

But the Golden Dome would be an infinitely bigger project, not least because the United States is more than 400 times larger than Israel.

During his announcement in the Oval Office yesterday, Trump said his new Golden Dome would be “capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from the other side of the world”.

While an initial sum of $25 billion has been allocated for the project, officials believe it will cost far more over coming decades.

Trump said it will cost around $175 billion in total during his announcement yesterday.

But one estimate from the Congressional Budget Office has the space-based components alone costing $542 billion over the next 20 years.

Trump also claimed that Canada “has called us and they want to be part of it”.

Then-Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair acknowledged his country’s interest during a visit to Washington earlier this year, saying Ottawa’s participation would “make sense”.

The Golden Dome would be designed to take on a wide range of missile threats to the United States, including lightning-fast hypersonic missiles that tear through the air faster than the speed of sound.

It also aims to protect America from fractional orbital bombardment systems, which deliver missiles from space.

“All of them will be knocked out of the air,” Trump said, claiming the success rate is “very close to 100%”.

The missile defence system is intended to stop warheads at any stage in their deployment, from before launch to while they are in the air.

Pentagon officials have long sounded the alarm that existing defence systems have not kept up with new missile tech being developed by Russia and China.

China has around 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles and Russia has 350, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment from last week.

Trump signed an executive order shortly after returning to office ordering proposals for a “next-generation missile defense shield”.

He said: “There really is no current system.

“We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defence, but there is no system… there has never been anything like this.”

Trump wants the Golden Dome to be operational by the end of his term, which expires in January 2029.

But US Air Force secretary Troy Meink has told senators the project is “still in the conceptual stage”.

Space Force General Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, has been earmarked to oversee its development.

The Space Force’s head General Chance Saltzman said on Tuesday that space weapons “represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organisations.”

The complex task of building the missile shield will need a network of government agencies and private contractors, multiple sources have told CNN.