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Donald Trump has put a $175bn price tag on the development of a “Golden Dome” missile defence shield, promising the project would be “operational” by the end of his term.
The so-called Golden Dome — whose name is a nod to the renowned “Iron Dome” shielding Israel — will be completed in two-and-a-half to three years, the US president said in an announcement from the Oval Office. The tax and budget bill before Congress includes $25bn to “help construction get under way”, he added.
Trump also said that Canada “has called us, and they want to be a part of it” and “have protection” as well. “We’ll work with them on pricing.”
The president set the Golden Dome project in motion in the first week of his second term with an executive order demanding the most ambitious, cutting-edge missile shield in US history: one that can destroy hypersonic missiles and prevent nuclear annihilation.
Flanked by defence secretary Pete Hegseth, several US senators and US Space Force General Michael Guetlein, who will lead the project, Trump said on Tuesday that the Golden Dome would “deploy next-generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors”.
But those interceptors — a web of satellites, some equipped with lasers — to detect, intercept and destroy ballistic nuclear missiles, require technology that does not yet exist. Given the unproven technology, there are huge hurdles for Golden Dome, which is akin to Ronald Reagan’s so-called Star Wars programme from the 1980s.
“Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago, but they didn’t have the technology,” Trump said. “Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space.”
He talked up the importance of Silicon Valley to realise his vision. “We have things that nobody else can have” in terms of technological development, Trump said. “A very big adversary told me ‘the most brilliant people in the world are Silicon Valley’.”
Newer tech players such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and start-ups Anduril and Palantir are expected to be involved in the Golden Dome alongside legacy defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin and RTX.
Aerospace and defence companies are already preparing to fight for fresh contract dollars. Lockheed set up a webpage declaring its readiness for this “Manhattan Project-scale mission”, referring to the second world war-era programme to develop the atomic bomb. So far there are no agreements with specific companies.
Trump was confident that Congress would continue to fund the Golden Dome as it develops: “It’s amazing how easy this one is to fund,” he said against the backdrop of a larger battle over his sweeping tax bill.
The project, however, could easily surpass its $175bn price tag. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that developing and launching the space-based interceptors could cost up to $542bn over 20 years.
Last week the Defense Intelligence Agency released a threat assessment illustrating the types of attacks China, Russia, Iran and North Korea could launch with sophisticated missiles that Golden Dome is meant to shield against.
Meanwhile, Democrats including senator Elizabeth Warren have raised conflict of interest concerns over SpaceX’s potential involvement in the project given Musk’s role in the Trump administration.
A group of 42 Democratic lawmakers, led by Warren, asked the top defence department watchdog earlier this month to “conduct a review of the Pentagon’s process to award the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence shield contract, including any involvement by Elon Musk in that process” since it is possible his company is a “top contender for the Golden Dome contract because of Mr Musk’s position in the government”.
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