President Donald Trump has unveiled new details about his ambitious multibillion-dollar “Golden Dome” missile defense system, aimed at shielding the United States from foreign missile attacks. He announced that the project is expected to be completed within three years, before his term ends.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said, “We’ll have it done in three years. Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles launched from anywhere around the globe.”
Several major defense contractors and technology firms, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are competing to secure contracts for building the system, reportedly making direct pitches to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. However, experts have expressed doubts about the aggressive timeline, the estimated costs, and even the overall feasibility of the “Golden Dome” project as proposed by the White House.
The US administration has remained vague about the exact plans for the “Golden Dome” missile shield, which draws inspiration from Israel’s Iron Dome but aims to operate on a far larger and more complex scale.
Unlike Israel’s Iron Dome, which selectively protects populated areas in a country roughly the size of New Jersey from short-range threats, the Golden Dome is envisioned as a space-based missile defense system capable of defending the United States—a country about 450 times larger—against advanced ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
President Trump estimated the project’s cost at around $175 billion. It will be led by Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations at the United States Space Force. Trump also announced that $25 billion of funding would come from his proposed sweeping spending cuts and tax reforms, which he is urging House Republicans to approve.
Trump added that Canada has expressed interest in joining the initiative and being covered under the Golden Dome’s protection. The Canadian Prime Minister’s office confirmed ongoing talks between Canadian and American officials about negotiating a new security and economic partnership, which would include strengthening NORAD and collaborating on initiatives like the Golden Dome.
Earlier this May, the Pentagon presented the White House with three development options for the Golden Dome missile defense system: small, medium, and large. While President Trump didn’t specify which option was chosen during Tuesday’s announcement, he stated that an architecture for the “state-of-the-art system” had been selected.
However, the administration’s ambitious timeline and cost estimates conflict with assessments from other military experts. Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery told CNN that building a ballistic missile defense system might realistically take 7 to 10 years and even then would have significant limitations, likely only able to protect key federal buildings and major cities rather than the entire country.
Other experts have told CNN that even hundreds of billions of dollars might be a conservative estimate for the Golden Dome, with some saying it’s practically impossible to project the total cost of such an ambitious project.
The US has considered building a comprehensive missile shield for decades but has yet to achieve it due to technological gaps and prohibitive costs.
A recent unclassified assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency highlighted the growing threat posed by adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, who could target the US mainland with ballistic missiles, long-range cruise missiles, bombers, and hypersonic weapons.
Building the Golden Dome will be an extremely complex endeavor, requiring coordination among numerous government agencies and private contractors, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning process.
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