WASHINGTON \u2014 Space industry executives said they are continuing to invest in the Golden Dome missile defense initiative despite uncertainty about its scope, cost and long-term political durability.<\/p>\n
At the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, Calif., industry analyst Chris Quilty raised questions about whether the program will endure or follow the path of past high-profile cancellations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all heard talks about $25 billion in the budget this year, and hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, depending upon how you size it,\u201d said Quilty, chief executive of consulting firm Quilty Space. He described Golden Dome as a \u201cbudget crosswalk \u2026 an amalgamation of things\u201d rather than an actual program.<\/p>\n
More than a year after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Pentagon to pursue the effort, Quilty asked executives whether they viewed it as durable. \u201cIs this something that has staying power, or is this another Crusader program or Comanche that runs its course for several years and gets canceled?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Quilty was referring to the Crusader artillery system and the Comanche helicopter, two Army modernization efforts from the 1990s and early 2000s that were canceled after billions of dollars in spending amid concerns over cost growth and shifting priorities.<\/p>\n
Golden Dome is envisioned as a layered homeland defense network integrating ground, airborne and space-based systems to detect, track and intercept ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles.<\/p>\n
Execs see an enduring problem<\/p>\n
Mark Hanson, senior mission architect at Redwire, said his company sees the missile defense challenge as enduring beyond any one administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur position is that it\u2019s a real problem, the budget notwithstanding,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s Golden Dome or some other name, it\u2019s a real problem that does have to be solved to defend the country. So to that extent, we are devoting internal resources, working with teammates to begin to architect and understand how we would go about solving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanson said Redwire is using digital engineering to model \u201csystem of systems\u201d scenarios. Missile threats are not going away, he said. \u201cAnd in that sense, however it\u2019s defined as a budget item, a crosswalk or wherever, we are actively looking into solutions as to how you would solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Daywalt, vice president of growth at Loft Federal, the U.S. subsidiary of Loft Orbital, said the issue is likely to remain a priority beyond the current administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis problem will persist through administrations, through different congresses,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a significant call to action that we need to get after, and the technologies to do that we\u2019ve been developing for years, and we\u2019re continuing to deploy them,\u201d he added. \u201cThat call to action represents a reason for us to continue to invest into this and continue to prepare how we\u2019re going to go after the different line items that inevitably will come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Vargas, executive vice president of growth at Voyager Technologies, said his company is investing in propulsion systems, space electronics, radios and cameras that could support a Golden Dome architecture. Such technologies, he said, \u201ccan empower the Golden Dome architecture, but can also empower other solutions that are being developed by the Space Force and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cost estimates for Golden Dome vary widely. Trump has cited a baseline figure of roughly $175 billion over about a decade. The Congressional Budget Office has said the effort could cost as much as $831 billion over 20 years, while some outside analysts have suggested total life-cycle costs could reach multiple trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Congress has approved significant early funding. The 2025 budget reconciliation law directed roughly $24 billion to integrated air and missile defense work associated with Golden Dome. For fiscal 2026, appropriators and budget documents show about $23 billion more directed toward the initiative, though lawmakers have pressed the Pentagon for a more detailed spending plan.<\/p>\n
Despite those appropriations, there is still a lack of clarity on what the program entails. \u201cI think we still don\u2019t have a good idea of what Golden Dome is,\u201d Quilty said.<\/p>\n