The Congressional Budget Office estimated Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system would cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years, seven times Trump's initial $175 billion estimate and double the CBO's 2025 assessment. The CBO found $730 billion would purchase space-based interceptors capable of destroying only about 10 incoming ballistic missiles. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, requested the estimate.
CBO cost estimate
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Golden Dome missile-defense system would cost $1.2 trillion to build out
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office's $1.2 trillion estimate for Golden Dome is roughly double the Congressional Budget Office's assessment from 2025 of a potential space-based interceptor system
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office estimated that if space-based interceptors were deleted from the Golden Dome system, the system's 20-year cost would drop to $448 billion
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office's Golden Dome cost estimate was requested by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon
- ▪Todd Harrison published a projection in September 2025 that roughly $1 trillion over two decades could buy enough space-based interceptors to take out five missiles in the boost phase, 50 hypersonic weapons in the glide phase, and 50 warheads in midcourse
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office estimated that about $730 billion of the Golden Dome system would purchase only enough space-based interceptors to destroy about 10 incoming ballistic missiles
- ▪Todd Harrison's September 2025 projection estimated that $1 trillion could also purchase nearly 150 missile-warning and -tracking satellites, 10 Ground-Based Midcourse Defense battalions, 10 Patriot batteries, eight THAAD batteries, and two Aegis Ashore sites
Budget discrepancies
- ▪The Trump administration's $185 billion budget for Golden Dome will not buy the capabilities described in the executive order, according to Todd Harrison of AEI
- ▪Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein stated in April 2026 that cost estimates by others are not estimating what the Golden Dome program is building but rather the modernization or continuation of legacy systems
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office's $1.2 trillion estimate for Golden Dome is fifteen times larger than the $79 billion the Trump administration plans to spend in the Golden Dome for America account over the next five years
- ▪Golden Dome's budget has swelled by $10 billion in the two months prior to May 12, 2026
- ▪The Congressional Budget Office's $1.2 trillion estimate for Golden Dome is nearly seven times larger than President Trump's original promise to build the system for $175 billion
Space-based interceptor challenges
- ▪Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Golden Dome program's leader, conceded that space-based interceptors may be too costly to build
- ▪Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein stated in April 2026 that if space-based interceptors cannot be built affordably, the Golden Dome program will not go into production on boost-phase space-based interceptors
- ▪Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein is the leader of the Golden Dome program
- ▪Space-based interceptors are the most expensive component of the Golden Dome system, according to the Congressional Budget Office
System capability gaps
- ▪Todd Harrison stated that the homeland missile defense that can be bought for $185 billion is an incremental improvement over current capabilities but not an impenetrable shield that will forever end the missile threat to the United States
Reconciliation funding reliance
- ▪The Trump administration requested more than $17 billion from reconciliation funds for Golden Dome in the 2027 defense budget and just $400 million from the annual Pentagon budget
- ▪The Pentagon plans to request an estimated $14.7 billion for Golden Dome in the 2028 budget and projects the request to rise to $16 billion by 2031
- ▪The Pentagon netted $24 billion in reconciliation funds for Golden Dome in 2025
Perspective of Trump administration / Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein
- ▪Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein stated in April 2026 that cost estimates by others are not estimating what the Golden Dome program is building but rather the modernization or continuation of legacy systems
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