Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield could cost hundreds of billions

By Zachary Cohen, Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand, CNN

(CNN) — The Pentagon has submitted small, medium and large options to the White House for developing “Golden Dome,” President Donald Trump’s vision for a cutting-edge missile shield that can protect the US from long-range strikes that will likely cost hundreds of billions of dollars, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.

Trump is expected to announce his preferred option – and its price point – in the coming days, a decision that will ultimately chart a path forward for funding, developing and implementing the space-based missile defense system over the next several years.

Whatever option Trump opts for, it won’t be cheap; $25 billion has been carved out in next year’s defense budget for the system, but the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the US could have to spend more than $500 billion – over the course of 20 years – to develop a viable Golden Dome.

The project will also present a bonanza for private contractors as the government won’t be able to build it alone, with companies including Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the running for highly lucrative contracts related to the system.

The Department of Defense “has developed a draft architecture and implementation plan for a Golden Dome system that will protect Americans and our homeland from a wide range of global missile threats,” chief Pentagon spokesman and senior adviser Sean Parnell told CNN in a statement.

“The Secretary of Defense and other Department leaders have engaged with the President to present options and look forward to announcing the path forward in the coming days,” Parnell added.

A key part of the implementation plan will be the establishment of a direct reporting program manager – also known as a “golden dome czar” – who can oversee the development and deployment of the highly complex system, according to three sources familiar with the conversations.

Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations at the US Space Force, is under close consideration for the role, the sources said, noting he is a four-star general with experience in the procurement of missile defense systems and emerging space-based capabilities.

For now, however, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding Golden Dome and what it will ultimately look like.

Another person with direct knowledge of the options said the system would ultimately encompass about 100 programs, many of which already live within the Defense Department or are in development. The one “entirely new” aspect would be the command and control and integration layer of the architecture, this person said.

“There are a lot of different flavors of what this could look like,” said a senior congressional official familiar with the Pentagon’s proposed plans.

A huge challenge

A comprehensive missile defense shield is a concept the US has pursued for decades but never realized because of gaps in technology and cost.

Trump has repeatedly insisted the US needs a missile defense program similar to Israel’s Iron Dome, but the systems are orders of magnitude apart. In practical terms, the comparison is less apples to oranges, and more apples to aircraft carriers.

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system selectively protects populated areas from short-range threats in a country the size of New Jersey; Trump wants a space-based missile defense system capable of defending the entire United States from advanced ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The Defense Intelligence Agency recently released an unclassified assessment titled “Golden Dome for America,” underscoring how US adversaries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea can target the American homeland with a variety of ballistic missiles, long-range cruise missiles, bombers and hypersonic missiles.

The core policy decision for Trump largely centers on next-generation capabilities to defend the US against ICBMs or hypersonic threats, the congressional official added, noting it is clear Golden Dome will require “a “significant research and development effort.”

Developing such a complex system will require establishing a network of government agencies and private contractors, the makeup of which remains unclear at this early stage, multiple sources familiar with the planning process said.

SpaceX is among the companies vying for a role in developing Golden Dome and has briefed Trump officials on a possible collaboration with two other contractors: Anduril and Palantir, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN. All three companies have made pitches directly to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has indicated he wants what they’re selling, one of the sources said.

High-profile defense contractors and tech companies have been jockeying for a slice of the pie since Trump’s election win in November.

And the lobbying campaign has ramped up since the president issued an executive order in January directing Hegseth to submit within 60 days options for developing Golden Dome.

Musk’s ownership of SpaceX, combined with his proximity to Trump, has rankled Democrats who have urged the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate the tech billionaire’s involvement in the process of awarding contracts related to Golden Dome.

But some defense officials, industry experts and congressional sources have defended SpaceX’s possible involvement in Golden Dome, with one source pointing out the company has already demonstrated expertise developing the sensor layer capability that the missile defense system will need.

“So, like, yes, SpaceX is probably the leading contender, but they’re the only legit shop in town for this right now,” the source told CNN.

The contract process is expected to be competitive, though, and carried out through the Defense Innovation Unit.

‘I’ve never seen an early estimate that was too high’

At a time the Pentagon is looking to cut budgets, the Trump administration has ordered military officials to ensure future funding for “Golden Dome” is reflected in new budget estimates for 2026, multiple sources told CNN.

For now, lawmakers have committed to making a “down payment on Golden Dome” as part of its reconciliation bill, the congressional official said, earmarking $25 billion in next year’s defense budget for satellites, space-based sensors and interceptors, and launch infrastructure.

“If you look at the appropriations, we have $7.2 billion just for the development, procurement and integration of space-based sensors,” the official noted. “And then there’s $5.6 billion for the development, procurement and integration of space-based and boost-phase interceptor capability.”

But that funding would only be a drop in the bucket compared with the estimated total cost of developing, implementing and maintaining the system Trump has described, defense officials and industry experts say.

“I’m 34 years in this business. I’ve never seen an early estimate that was too high. It’s the nature of the business,” Gen. Chance Saltzman, the chief of space operations for US Space Force, said last week when asked about the CBO’s cost estimate during an event hosted by Politico.

While defense officials and industry executives largely agree that it will take years before a system like Golden Dome is fully operational, the Trump administration is already on the clock to prove that the concept can work in order to justify future funding for the project.

“Once the president makes the decision, how do we execute in a way that gets to kind of initial operating capability, as fast as possible in these different areas that may end up being an official part of Golden Dome or not?” the congressional official told CNN.

But the project has already suffered from at least one self-inflicted delay in its earliest stages, CNN has learned.

Trump had ordered Hegseth to present options for developing and implementing the system by March 28, but the White House did not receive those plans until nearly a month after the President’s original deadline, the sources said.

The early delay – coupled with broader dysfunction within the defense secretary’s inner circle – has raised more questions about whether Trump should allow someone else to assume responsibility for overseeing one of his most ambitious and expensive policy directives going forward, two of the sources familiar with internal discussions about the project told CNN.

Even before Hegseth missed the March deadline, several West Wing staffers had grown frustrated with what they described to others as a lack of responsiveness from his closest advisers – pointing to how it had specifically impacted efforts related to Golden Dome.

At one point toward the beginning of Hegseth’s tenure, the White House was trying to reach Hegseth’s now-former chief of staff, Joe Kasper, to get the Pentagon chief to sign a memo kickstarting the process of developing it, but the memo went unsigned for three weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hegseth has repeatedly insisted that Golden Dome is “under construction,” but Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, reaffirmed Thursday that the system is still largely just a concept at this stage.

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