The ludicrous project is imagined as a constellation of hundreds of space-based ballistic missile interceptors at a cost of $175 billion to defend the United States from theoretical nuclear strikes. Even its already grossly inflated price tag is probably optimistic thinking. Where exactly the price tag lands depends on Guetlein’s yet-to-be-released blueprints. With a near-limitless price tag and one of the most complicated feats of aerospace engineering ever conceived, it’s more likely this ends up like Trump’s other infrastructure pipe dreams: a half-baked pile of private-sector busywork that’ll never achieve liftoff. More on national security: An Unknown Entity Has Voice Cloned the Secretary of State and Is Calling High Level Officials