President Donald Trump has announced the projected price tag and timeline of completion for the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system.
According to a report from Politico, the commander in chief has set aside $175 billion for the system, with $25 billion of that sum included in his new ‘big, beautiful bill.’ Trump expects the Golden Dome to be fully operational within three years.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “This design will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term.”
In late January, the President issued an executive order formalizing the Golden Dome initiative.
“President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized,” the EO read. “And since the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and initiated development of limited homeland missile defense, official United States homeland missile defense policy has remained only to stay ahead of rogue-nation threats and accidental or unauthorized missile launches.”
“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a statement elaborating on the design process of the Golden Dome.
“The United States will continue to enhance its existing capabilities to provide a thorough layered defense for its homeland,” Hegseth said. “This EO does not represent an abandonment of existing ground, sea, and air-based kinetic defenses focused on missile interception in the midcourse or terminal phases of flight. Golden Dome is being designed in close coordination with NORAD, USNORTHCOM, USSPACECOM, and other DoD stakeholders to ensure full interoperability and real-time integration with our existing defense architecture.”
During the announcement, Trump named Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Space Force’s vice chief of space operations, to lead the project.
U.S Rep. Dale Strong, who represents one of the premier congressional districts in the nation for space exploration and missile defense, has been perhaps the most vocal advocate of the Golden Dome missile defense system in the House or Senate.
Strong told WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show” in late March that much of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system capabilities are made possible by contributions from the North Alabama area and emphasized the expertise of the area’s workforce in creating such networks.
“It’s an intercontinental ballistic system, and the big thing is it’s a bullet hitting a bullet,” said Strong (R-Huntsville). “But let me tell you something: A lot of that technology for Iron Dome, Huntsville, and Redstone Arsenal, North Alabama, played a big part in it. The big thing we’re going to do is just be sure to say, ‘Look, this is what our scientists are able to do. This is what our electrical mechanical engineers are able to do.’ I think that we will be a part of the process of creating the Golden Dome. How deep we will be into that is still to be determined.”
Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
