What Is Golden Dome? The US Missile Shield Plan Explained

Golden Dome for America is a US Defense Department program to build a layered air and missile defense system for the American homeland. It would link existing interceptors and radars with new sensors and, possibly, interceptors based in space. The program office puts the cost at $185 billion through 2035. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a system meeting the goals of the order that created it would cost about $1.2 trillion over 20 years.

What is Golden Dome and who runs it?

President Donald Trump launched the effort with Executive Order 14186. It was signed on January 27, 2025, under the title The Iron Dome for America. The order describes attack by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial weapons, as the most catastrophic threat facing the country.

According to a Congressional Research Service brief updated in August 2026, the program is managed by the Pentagon's Office of Golden Dome for America under Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein. Guetlein reports to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the brief says.

The order marks a change in stated strategy. A September 2025 CRS primer notes that previous policy aimed homeland missile defense at rogue states and accidental or unauthorized launches. That policy relied on nuclear deterrence against Russia and China, the primer notes. The order instead pledges to defend against any foreign aerial attack. Trump has said the system should be fully operational before his term ends.

How would Golden Dome work?

The Pentagon describes a system of systems, not a single weapon. CRS says it may incorporate defenses the United States already operates, along with radars and warning satellites. Those defenses, CRS says, include Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptors in Alaska and California. They also include ship- and land-based Aegis systems, and THAAD and Patriot batteries.

The executive order also calls for new elements:

• satellites that track hypersonic and ballistic missiles
• defenses that engage missiles late in flight
• space-based interceptors able to hit a missile in its boost phase, shortly after launch

Space-based interceptors have been a focus of the feasibility debate, CRS notes. In April 2026 the Space Force named 12 companies holding prototype agreements, DefenseScoop reported. The agreements are worth up to a combined $3.2 billion, with demonstrations due by 2028, it reported. The list ranges from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to SpaceX, Anduril, True Anomaly and Turion Space. The same month, Guetlein told a House subcommittee that the interceptors would not go into production if they proved unaffordable or could not be built at scale.

How much will Golden Dome cost?

The published figures differ widely and do not measure the same thing.

• $175 billion: the price Trump gave in May 2025.
• $185 billion: the program office's current estimate for its planned architecture, through delivery in 2035. Both figures come from the administration.
• About $1.2 trillion: the Congressional Budget Office estimate, published in May 2026, to develop, deploy and operate a system for 20 years, in 2026 dollars. CBO is a nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and is independent of the Pentagon.

CBO did not price the Pentagon's actual design, which had not been released. It modeled a notional system based on the executive order, with four interceptor layers. The space layer, 7,800 satellites in the model, accounts for about 70 percent of acquisition costs. CBO said the Pentagon's figure appears to cover a shorter period. It said the gap suggests the Pentagon's plan is more limited than CBO's model, or draws on money from other accounts, or both. Guetlein has disputed outside estimates. In congressional testimony in April 2026, before CBO's report, he said they multiply out the cost of older systems, the Associated Press reported.

Even the larger system would have limits. CBO found its notional design could fully engage an attack by a regional adversary such as North Korea, or a small-scale attack by Russia or China. But CBO found it could be overwhelmed by a full-scale attack from either Russia or China.

How is Golden Dome funded?

Congress provided $24.4 billion toward related efforts through the 2025 budget reconciliation law, according to CRS. For fiscal 2027 the Pentagon requested $17.5 billion. Of that, $17.1 billion, or 98 percent, depends on Congress passing another reconciliation bill instead of a regular appropriations act.

A stopgap continuing resolution that runs through December 11 took effect on October 1, 2026. Because Golden Dome has no fiscal 2026 appropriation to serve as a baseline, the stopgap leaves its near-term funding uncertain, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. Guetlein warned in August that without fiscal 2027 funding there would be no program. At a September 29 Senate subcommittee hearing, Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, urged colleagues to fund it through a regular appropriations bill.

What to watch

Three things stand out as of October 2026:

• whether Congress funds the fiscal 2027 request, through reconciliation or a regular spending bill
• whether space-based interceptor prototypes are demonstrated by 2028
• the annual report Congress now requires on Golden Dome's architecture, cost and schedule

CBO repeated its estimate in testimony at the September 29 hearing. Its analysts have now been briefed on the Pentagon's classified architecture, SpaceNews reported on September 30, 2026.