President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on May 20, 2025, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)
WASHINGTON — The Golden Dome missile defense system would cost $1.2 trillion to build out, far more than the White House’s proposal, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which released its estimate Tuesday.
The Golden Dome is envisioned as a ground- and space-based, integrated system of sensors, satellites and weapons capable of detecting and destroying missiles fired at the U.S. homeland.
The $1.2 trillion estimate is to build and operate the system for 20 years. Just over $1 trillion of the costs are for acquisition. The space-based interceptor layer, a constellation of 7,800 satellites, accounts for about 70% of acquisition costs and 60% of total costs.
The office, a nonpartisan budget analysis agency, acknowledged that since the Defense Department has publicly released few details about the underlying architecture of the actual Golden Dome project, it’s “impossible to estimate the long-term cost of the (Golden Dome for America) system being contemplated by DOD.”
The system would cover the entire U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii, and would have the capacity to fully engage an attack from a regional adversary such as North Korea.
“However, the system could be overwhelmed by a full-scale attack mounted by a peer or near-peer adversary. Furthermore, ‘fully engage’ is not the same as ‘fully defeat’ because no defense works perfectly every time,” the 12-page report states.
President Donald Trump announced the Golden Dome anti-missile “shield” last year with a cost of $175 billion and operational by the end of his term, after signing an executive order in January 2025 that called for an “Iron Dome for America.”
Iron Dome refers to an Israeli missile defense system that has performed well in conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah but which protects a vastly smaller territory than envisioned by Golden Dome.
Congressional estimates put the initial cost of the system at $185 billion, with an operational target of about 2035. If the entire system, including space-based interceptors, were built, the cost would be over $1 trillion over several decades, according to Aviation Week magazine.
A protective shield from nuclear missiles for America has been talked about for decades but never overcame formidable costs and technological challenges.
