An artist’s rendering of a proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system is displayed during a press conference at the White House on May 9, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images/TNS)
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — The Pentagon has developed a draft architecture and plan to implement the proposed “Golden Dome” air and missile defense system, its spokesman said, as questions mount about the Trump administration’s ambitious project.
Following President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order, the Pentagon “gathered the brightest minds and best technical talent to review a full range of options that considers current U.S. missile defense technology and cutting edge innovation to rapidly develop and field a dependable umbrella of protection for our homeland,” spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Bloomberg News.
Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other department leaders “have engaged with the President to present options, and look forward to announcing the path forward in the coming days.”
An illustrative Golden Dome poster was displayed during a White House press conference Monday as Trump signed an executive order to lower prescription drug prices. He said the projected savings from the action can cover the project’s cost.
“It’ll easily pay for the Golden Dome, and we’ll have a lot of money left over,” Trump said, without announcing specific dollar figures.
Before Parnell issued his statement, the Defense Department and White House have offered no specifics regarding the Golden Dome’s architecture, time lines and projected cost.
That’s irked lawmakers responsible for passing the defense budget.
According to the the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. may have to spend as much as $542 billion over 20 years to develop and launch the least proven and likely most contentious segment of the system: the network of space-based interceptors.
That network could cost $161 billion even at the low end, the office said in an assessment prepared for a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The price tag will depend on launch costs and the number of weapons put into orbit, it said.
The Defense Intelligence Agency this week released a chart illustrating potential threats to the U.S. that the Golden Dome could in theory face.
“DIA is currently providing the authoritative intelligence assessments to assist the Department in designing and deploying the necessary defenses to support the Golden Dome initiative,” agency director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse told a House Armed Services committee panel Thursday in written testimony.
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