The administration of United States President Donald Trump has circulated plans for its $175 billion “Golden Dome” missile defence system, revealing a possible new missile field in the Midwest and details of the project’s plans to shoot down missiles in space. According to a series of slides presented to defence contractors, the Golden Dome includes three layers of missile interceptors, radar arrays, and lasers, in addition to its space-based defences.
The plans, titled “Go Fast, Think Big!”, were presented to some 3,000 defence contractors in Huntsville, Alabama, last week. While the presentation highlighted that the US “has built both interceptors and re-entry vehicles” for space-based missile interception before, the plans also acknowledged that the US has never built a vehicle that can handle the heat of re-entry while targeting an enemy missile.
Trump has estimated his Golden Dome could cost $175 billion. So far, Congress has appropriated $25 billion for the system in the president’s tax and spending bill passed in July. Another $45.3 billion is earmarked for the Golden Dome in Trump’s 2026 presidential budget request. “They have a lot of money, but they don’t have a target of what it costs yet,” a US official said.
Lockheed Martin has described the Gold Dome as “a defence system that shields America from aerial threats, hypersonic missiles and drone swarms with unmatched speed and accuracy”. “Thanks to President Trump’s vision, Golden Dome will make this a reality, securing our future,” Lockheed Martin wrote in a post on social media in March.
The project still faces a significant funding shortfall. Trump suggested in May that the shortfall could be partly made up by Canada paying $61 billion towards the project. However, the feasibility of this plan remains uncertain.
The Golden Dome defence system has been touted as a key component of Trump’s national security strategy. However, experts have raised questions about the cost, feasibility, and global security implications of the project.
The plans for the dome included a map showing that a new large-scale missile field, with systems built by Lockheed Martin, could be located in the US Midwest. The site would be in addition to two similar missile fields that already exist in southern California and Alaska.
The slides did not include any references to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was part of a bid for Golden Dome contracts, alongside the software maker Palantir and defence systems manufacturer Anduril.
Trump campaigned on building “a missile defence shield around our country,” in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. At an earlier campaign event, Trump compared his plans with Israel’s Iron Dome, a missile defence system that detects incoming rockets and intercepts them.
Days after taking office, Trump signed an executive order to “immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defence shield, which will be able to protect Americans”. While Trump secured $25 billion for the system, the project still faces significant challenges and uncertainties.