The US Department of Defense has increased the projected cost of its Golden Dome missile defense system by up to $10 billion to accelerate critical space-based capabilities.
The move places the initiative’s potential funding at up to $185 billion, with Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman officially confirmed as prime contractors.
US Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, manager of the Golden Dome effort, announced the move during his speech at a defense programs conference in Virginia, Reuters reported.
Eyeing Inexpensive Solutions
Guetlein said that the additional funding will speed development of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, a space-based data transport network, and airborne and orbital tracking capabilities.
He specified that those solutions will support space-based interceptors, which officials claim are the program’s highest-risk element.
“It’s not the technology — it’s the scalability and the affordability,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying. “Can we scale those solutions fast enough and affordable enough to be effective against the threat is really where the challenge is going to be.”
Guetlein also pushed back on higher external estimates, saying, “They’re not estimating what I’m building,” and argued that those projections assume more complex, expeditionary systems.
The Golden Dome
Washington’s mission under the Golden Dome initiative is to establish a layered shield of sensors, satellites, and interceptors to defend the US homeland from ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic threats.
US President Donald Trump originally set the program’s cost at $175 billion and directed it to deliver an initial capability by 2028, with a full architecture extending to about 2035.
Congress approved $25 billion to begin development in 2025. Since then, the Pentagon has not disclosed details of early trials but said a series of evaluations has already taken place.
