Twelve firms are actually competing to construct space-based interceptors for President Donald Trump’s sprawling Golden Dome missile protection protect, the Area Power introduced Friday.
In late 2025 and early this yr, the Area Power awarded 20 Different Transaction Authority agreements, versatile contracts not sure by sure federal procurement laws, Area Power Methods Command mentioned in a information launch. The awards are price as much as $3.2 billion, and the dozen firms vary from well-known prime contractors to smaller and protection gamers.
They embody Anduril, Booz Allen Hamilton, Common Dynamics, GITAI USA Inc, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quindar Inc, Raytheon, Sci-Tec Inc, SpaceX, True Anomaly Inc, and Turion Area Corp., in accordance with a Area Power press launch and a Area Methods Command spokesperson.
“Adversary capabilities are advancing quickly, and our acquisition methods should transfer even sooner to counter the rising pace and maneuverability of contemporary missile threats,” Col. Bryon McClain, the house fight energy program govt workplace, mentioned in a press launch. He added the Different Transaction Authority Agreements “attracted each conventional and non-traditional distributors, whereas harnessing American innovation, and guaranteeing steady competitors.”
The service’s space-based interceptor program is concentrated on fielding low Earth orbit satellites that may take down quite a lot of missiles within the “increase, midcourse, and glide” phases of their trajectory, the service mentioned within the information launch.
Final week, Area Power Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Golden Dome czar, informed Congress that improvement of space-based interceptors that might take down a missile in its preliminary launch section might be too costly for the venture’s proposed $185 billion funds, and will not make the ultimate structure.
Growing the know-how is barely the beginning. To offer the sort of complete missile-defense protection promised by President Trump, Golden Dome would wish not simply 1000’s of satellites, however tens and even lots of of 1000’s, MIT physicists and others have argued.
Nonetheless, the Area Power stays optimistic that it will possibly reveal Golden Dome’s potential to cease quite a lot of missiles earlier than the tip of Trump’s time period.
“With the dedication and collaboration of those business companions, the Area Power will reveal an preliminary functionality in 2028,” McClain mentioned.
Yesterday, Protection Division officers and navy leaders joined Guetlein at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia, to debate the missile protection venture in an occasion restricted to only some media retailers. Regardless of an absence of public particulars about Golden Dome-related spending and structure, officers claimed “forward of schedule and on funds,” in accordance with a Pentagon press launch.
“We’re shifting with goal and urgency to forge a protect that’s layered, built-in, and automatic,” Guetlein mentioned. “The progress on show in the present day is tangible proof that this isn’t a future idea, however a actuality we should construct now.”
Nearly not one of the $17.5 billion within the 2027 funds request for Golden Dome would come from the Protection Division’s baseline spending, with the administration selecting to guess on yet-to-be-approved reconciliation funds as an alternative. Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the Home Armed Providers Committee, informed Area Symposium attendees in Colorado Springs earlier this month that further reconciliation spending wasn’t a assure.
Workplace of Administration and Funds projections present Golden Dome funds being folded into the baseline funds in future years, with a $14.7 billion estimate in 2028 which is projected to rise to $16 billion by 2031.
