US military officials are scrambling to develop a “Golden Dome” defence system that can protect the country from long-range missile strikes and have been told by the White House that no expense will be spared in order to fulfil one of President Donald Trump’s top Pentagon priorities, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
“Golden Dome” is the Trump administration’s attempt to rebrand vague plans for developing a missile defence system akin to Israel’s Iron Dome.
At a time the Pentagon is looking to cut budgets, the Trump administration has ordered military officials to ensure future funding for “Golden Dome” is reflected in new budget estimates for 2026 to 2030 – but the system itself remains undefined beyond a name, the sources said.
“Right now, Golden Dome is, it’s really an idea,” one source familiar with internal discussions about the project said, adding there may be technology in the pipeline that, if ever scaled up, could apply to it, but as of now discussions are purely conceptual.
That makes projecting future costs nearly impossible, the source added, though it would likely cost billions of dollars to construct and maintain.
Trump has repeatedly insisted the US needs a missile defence program similar to Israel’s Iron Dome, but the systems are orders of magnitude apart.
In practical terms, the comparison is less apples to oranges, and more apples to aircraft carriers.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system selectively protects populated areas from short-range threats in a country the size of New Jersey; Trump wants a space-based missile defence system capable of defending the entire United States from advanced ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
For one thing, “Israel is tiny,” the source familiar with ongoing internal discussions about the Golden Dome project said.
“So, it is 100 per cent feasible to blanket Israel in things like radars and a combination of mobile and fixed interceptors.”
“How are you going to do that in the United States? You can’t do it just at the borders and the shoreline, because intercontinental ballistic missiles, they can re-enter the atmosphere over Kansas.”
Still, Trump issued an executive order during his first week in office ordering Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit a plan for developing and implementing the next-generation missile defence shield by March 28.
And a senior Pentagon official insisted earlier this week that work is underway.
“Consistent with protecting the homeland and per President Trump’s [executive order], we’re working with the industrial base and [through] supply chain challenges associated with standing up the Golden Dome,” Steven J. Morani, currently performing the duties of undersecretary of defence for acquisition and sustainment said this week at the McAleese Defence Programs Conference in Washington.
At the same time, Pentagon officials have been realigning the Defence Department’s 2026 budget proposal to meet Hegseth’s priorities, which were outlined in a memo delivered to senior leaders last week and represents a major overhaul of the military’s strategic goals, according to a copy obtained by CNN.
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