President Donald Trump announced new details for the new Department of Defense Golden Dome project on Tuesday, including a three-year completion timeline and $25 billion in initial funding in his “one big, beautiful bill.”
“The Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, even if they’re launched from space, and we will have the best system ever built,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He said the administration has selected “an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next-generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors.”
Trump, joined by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, suggested the initial funding will come through the reconciliation bill, which is currently being negotiated in the House. He said the estimated total cost will be around $175 billion, and it would be completed and operational before the end of his term.
Hegseth called the effort a “game changer.”
Trump claimed that the system will have “a success rate very close to 100%” and be capable of taking on threats from hypersonic missiles. He also said that all of the components for this new system would be made “here in the United States.” Trump said that the United States and Canada are “already talking about pricing” to be included in the protection system.
Sens. Dan Sullivan and Kevin Cramer attended the announcement and were recognized by the president as “fantastic senators, great talents, great political talents and people that love our country.” The Republican senators plan to introduce legislation to give the project even more backing than it already has.
That’s a departure from where Republicans were last year, when Trump first started floating an “Iron Dome” for the United States on the campaign trail. Sullivan was somewhat skeptical of the issue when Trump debuted the idea. He was most focused on hypersonic advanced cruise missiles, which the Iron Dome technology hadn’t been tested against, as NOTUS reported in January 2024.
Sen. Joni Ernst said at the time she “would just want to know what he’s talking about.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville also seemed confused on what Trump was asking for: “We’ve got an ocean on each side and Mexico, and we’re supposed to have friends on either side. That’s a hard one to answer,” he said then.
Sullivan said he’s still focused on hypersonic capabilities. He said that the system would be a major addition to “missile defense” and that Alaska is a “cornerstone” to U.S. missile defense systems currently.
“I’ve been talking to the president and his team about this for quite some time,” Sullivan told NOTUS Tuesday morning. Sullivan and Cramer want to see a congressional mandate for the project that “reinforces his executive order” but also fleshes out more of the requirements for the system. As of yet, major industry players haven’t understood what those requirements are.
“It’s amazing how easy this one is to fund,” Trump said of the system, with Sullivan calling the initial $25 billion a “down payment.”
“Having a statutory construct is really important,” Sullivan said. “You’ve seen the money, but having a statutory component helps make sure it’s stable and continues.”
Trump has the support of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sen. Roger Wicker, the committee chair, supports the project and Sullivan’s legislation.
“We’re trying to build a layered missile defense program that is new and reliable,” Wicker told NOTUS last week, adding that it is meant to build “multiple layers” into the current missile defense system.
“Unless you’re willing to say we’ll continue on with mutual assured destruction…other countries are building out a defensive capability, so yes, we’ve got to do Golden Dome,” Wicker said.
Sen. Mike Rounds, who has emerged as a sometimes critical voice of the president’s campaign promises, said last week that he sees it as a major upgrade for missile defense.
“It’s an integrated program that includes the existing missile defense,” he said. “Basically, it brings it all together. It’s a layered defense system that gives us more capabilities for protecting our cities.”
While many of the Senate Armed Services members have similarly called it a “layered” system and described it as “integrated” with missile defense, it remains to be seen what the actual requirements are. Sullivan suggested that the project will span many different military capabilities.
“It’s everything,” Sullivan said. “Missile defense, space-based, intermediate. It’s an open architecture that can integrate the data and the systems.”
Such a system does not currently exist, nor does the current communications architecture to allow it to work.
—
John T. Seward and Nuha Dolby are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.