The Golden Dome missile defense program will cost $185 billion, $10 billion more than its original estimate, after the Pentagon approved additional funding to accelerate three space-based capabilities, the program’s director said Tuesday.
Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, who serves as direct reporting program manager for the Golden Dome for America office, announced the revised figure during the McAleese Defense Programs conference in Arlington, Virginia. The additional funding will go toward the Airborne Moving Target Indication (AMTI) satellite constellation, the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS), and the Space Data Network.
“We were asked to procure some additional space capabilities,” Guetlein said. “So we are at $185 billion for the objective architecture, which delivers way out into the 2035 timeframe.”
“We were asked to procure some additional space capabilities, so we are at $185 billion for the objective architecture,”
– Gen. Michael Guetlein at #DPC26
via @BreakingDefense #McAleeseAnalysis https://t.co/3c012Kcutg— McAleese & Associates (@McAleeseAssocPC) March 17, 2026
AMTI satellites detect and track airborne targets, including aircraft and cruise missiles, from low-Earth orbit. The Space Force has been developing prototype AMTI satellites alongside the National Reconnaissance Office, with early on-orbit experiments yielding positive results. Full operational capability is not expected until the 2030s.
HBTSS, a joint Missile Defense Agency and Space Force program, provides birth-to-death tracking of ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Two demonstration HBTSS satellites launched into low-Earth orbit in 2024 have since proved their ability to track threats and relay targeting data to interceptors.
Guetlein also announced that Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman have joined the Golden Dome C2 consortium, expanding the group from six firms to nine. He described command and control as the program’s “secret sauce,” adding that a recent live demonstration showed the capability was “comparable” to the Missile Defense Agency’s legacy system.
The consortium operates without a lead contractor and holds members accountable on a weekly basis.
“They decide what they’re going to build, when they’re going to build it, how they’re going to build it, and who the best athlete amongst them is to build it,” Guetlein said. “If at any point during that week, one of them did not carry their load, they can vote that individual or that company off the island.”
Trump signed an executive order initiating the program in January 2025. Congress appropriated $25 billion for it under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The SHIELD contracting vehicle (Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense) now carries more than 2,400 approved awardees eligible to compete for work.
Guetlein rejected outside estimates placing the total program cost above $1 trillion, saying those figures apply an overseas battlefield cost model to a homeland defense mission. “They’re not estimating what I’m building,” he said.
Space-based interceptors remain the program’s highest-risk element. Guetlein cited directed energy weapons and artificial intelligence as the most promising technologies for driving down cost-per-kill. He is required to field and demonstrate an operational capability by the summer of 2028.
“It is not the technology, it’s the scalability of the affordability,” Guetlein said. “Can we scale those solutions fast enough and affordable enough to be effective against the threat? That is really where the challenge is going to be.”
