U.S. expands Golden Dome cost estimate to US$185 billion, enlists top defense firms

This undated photo shows a pre-production model of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. (Northrop Grumman Corp.)

The price tag for the Golden Dome missile defense shield has grown to US$185 billion, up $10 billion, to accelerate key space-based capabilities, the program’s director said on Tuesday, adding that Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman have joined as prime contractors.

Golden Dome envisions expanding ground‑based defenses such as interceptor missiles, sensors and command‑and‑control systems while adding space‑based elements meant to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit. These would include advanced satellite networks and still‑debated weaponry in orbit.

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“We were asked to accelerate some space capabilities,” Golden Dome’s manager, Space Force General Michael Guetlein, told the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Arlington, Virginia. He identified three programs that would benefit from the additional funding: the Advanced Missile Tracking Initiative, a space data network, and the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, known as HBTSS.

HBTSS is a space-based sensor system designed to detect and track hypersonic and ballistic missile threats. Its inclusion in the accelerated funding package signals the Pentagon’s urgency in fielding a persistent overhead tracking capability as adversaries expand their hypersonic arsenals.

The $185 billion figure covers what Guetlein called the “objective architecture,” a full-capability system to be delivered over the next decade.

Guetlein rejected outside estimates that have placed the program’s potential cost above $1 trillion, arguing those figures are based on applying expensive, self-contained battlefield systems designed for overseas combat to a homeland defense mission that requires a fundamentally different and cheaper approach.

“They’re not estimating what I’m building,” Guetlein said.

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Guetlein called the command-and-control system Golden Dome’s “secret sauce.” He described a nine-company consortium that began as a self-formed group of six firms before Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman joined as prime partners.

The consortium briefs Guetlein every Thursday evening and can vote underperforming members out of the group.

The general identified space-based interceptors as the program’s highest-risk element, citing scalability and affordability as the central challenge. He said directed energy weapons and next-generation artificial intelligence represent the most promising technologies for driving down cost-per-kill and increasing magazine depth.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Arlington, Virginia, Editing by Rod Nickel)