On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping $175 billion missile defense program called the "Golden Dome," in which Trump put US Space Force General Michael Guetlein in charge, and likened to the scope of the Manhattan Project.
Talking from the Oval Office, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Guetlein, Trump laid out plans to finish the system in three years. Trump stressed that the Golden Dome would deliver total protection for the whole continental United States, as well as Canada, from missile threats, Xinhua news agency reported.
It is a fantastic day for America," Trump declared, sitting next to a huge poster of the US map colored gold with stylized depictions of missile interceptions. "This Golden Dome design will complement our current defense systems and should be up and running before my term expires.
The system is designed to create a sprawling network of satellites that can locate, track, and intercept missiles from all over the world—even those fired from space. Trump bragged that the project can defeat even the highest-level missile threats.
First introduced as the "Iron Dome for America" back in the early days of Trump's presidency, the project was redubbed "Golden Dome" by the Pentagon in February, allegedly because of trademark issues with Israel's Iron Dome system.
General Guetlein, a former vice chief of US Space Force space operations, comes with valuable missile defense and space technology expertise to the job. In March, he framed the undertaking as being "on the order of magnitude of the Manhattan Project," needing highest-level governmental coordination and national determination.
The announced $175 billion budget is notably lower than prior Congressional Budget Office estimates, which projected the program’s cost could range from $161 billion to $542 billion over two decades, according to a Bloomberg report from early May. Earlier studies, such as a 2012 National Research Council report, had estimated costs of up to $831 billion (adjusted to 2025 dollars) for similar space-based missile defense systems.
At the same time, Senator Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) heads a congressional "Golden Dome caucus" and recently cautioned that the ultimate price tag of the project could be in the trillions, as reported by Space News.
Defense analysts have questioned the technical difficulties of upscaling a system based on Israel's Iron Dome, which is meant to defend against short-range rockets and artillery, to protect an area approximately 400 times that size against advanced ballistic and hypersonic missile threats.
Major contractors vying for a spot in the satellite aspect of the system are SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril. Their proposals call for sending hundreds or even thousands of low Earth orbiting satellites to allow for real-time 3D tracking and missile defense capability.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans have offered up dedicating $27 billion for the Golden Dome program as part of a larger $150 billion defense appropriations bill tied to Trump's reconciliation tax-cutting efforts.
The system would heavily depend on interceptors and space-based sensors for providing prompt early warning and response, according to Space Force officials quoted in several media reports. The project is economically feasible today, supporters say, thanks to advancements in technology that differ from previous missile defense notions like the Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan years.
But critics warn that space militarization would unleash a new arms race and destabilize current arms control treaties.
The Union of Concerned Scientists' research director Laura Grego labeled the proposal "fantasy" in a statement earlier this year. She warned that foes would counter with measures to neutralize any space-based defense.
The team observed that past efforts to add space-based elements to the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system have consistently been canceled because of excessive expense, technical challenges, and susceptibility to deception.
"Trump's vision of a space-based missile defense is a bad bet," concluded the Union of Concerned Scientists.
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