Trump’s Golden Dome, A Year In, Is Struggling To Take Shape

President Donald Trump promised the country a stunning missile defense shield that the military would build in record speed.

One year and billions of dollars later, his “Golden Dome” dream is no closer to reality.

The Pentagon hasn’t started rolling out the vast network of sensors and interceptors because — partly due to the project’s complexity — the White House has yet to release the billions Congress appropriated to build the architecture. And that means the defense industry hasn’t been able to start working in earnest, according to two industry insiders and two former defense officials.

“The whole thing is at risk,” a former senior Pentagon official said.

The people warned that Trump’s desire to create such a Herculean feat in three years has been further hampered by inconsistent communication to industry. And they noted some of the technological and logistical hurdles facing the program are likely insurmountable.

Space-based interceptors, for example, are a centerpiece of Trump’s original plan. The complex equipment is intended to destroy missiles just a few minutes after launch, but that narrow time frame is very difficult to hit. And even if the U.S. could build a reliable launch detection and interceptor network, ground-based missiles are much cheaper to manufacture. So an adversary could flood the skies with relatively low-cost missiles and easily overwhelm them.

Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein said the Defense Department is planning to test a space-based interceptor in 2028, but the department hasn’t specified what it will demonstrate or how complex the test will be.

The Golden Dome office “continues to meet the goals” outlined in an executive order on the project, the Pentagon said in a statement, adding that the implementation plan is “dynamic” but the baseline elements of the architecture are now established.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite the uncertainty, defense contractors are eyeing the massive pot of money and racing to prove how their systems can fit into Trump’s Golden Dome vision.

The Pentagon has already doled out small contracts to start developing space-based interceptors. The expectation is that companies will spend their own money in the development phase, in hopes of winning big production contracts down the line.

But companies are frustrated that the Pentagon hasn’t tapped into the $23 billion already appropriated by Congress in the reconciliation package passed last summer.

“Behind the scenes, of course industry is a bit frustrated,” said one industry representative, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to talk about sensitive government contracting. “Setting up a prize mechanism instead of putting companies on contract when there are billions appropriated is frustrating.”

And the industry is wary of investing too much up front. Companies fear the program might not survive in the next administration and a production contract for space-based interceptors may never materialize.

“I don’t think anyone in industry is banking on [space-based interceptors] surviving into the next admin,” the second industry representative said. “To the extent possible, they are going to package together existing [research and development] efforts and bank on the Trump admin deciding to spend money faster to show progress.”

But that also means asking defense contractors to take on quite a bit of risk.

"They don't necessarily understand how it's all going to come together into a workable system," said former Pentagon comptroller Elaine McCusker. “There's all these lines of effort, and some of them are out for industry competition, and some of them the government plans on doing itself. And so it's kind of like, how are they going to do that?”

Congress is also frustrated with the Pentagon’s slow pace.

Lawmakers have yet to receive a detailed plan on how the Pentagon plans to spend the $23 billion. Golden Dome funds aren’t expected until the last batch of defense reconciliation dollars, according to one of the industry representatives and congressional staffer familiar with the topic, and no one knows when exactly that will come.

Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.), a co-chair of the House Golden Dome Caucus, said he’s attended a classified briefing on the architecture and felt confident in Guetlein’s plan but is waiting for the final go ahead from the White House.

“That's essentially what we're waiting for, is that sign off from the White House, and then I think that they'll begin allocating all the money that was appropriated,” Crank said. “And that has been, again, for those of us that support the president's goal here, certainly frustrating, and I'm sure frustrating to the president.”

Appropriators have criticized the Pentagon for the lack of information on Golden Dome. They asked the department to provide a comprehensive spending plan for the effort within 60 days of the annual defense appropriations bill becoming law.

Pentagon officials have attributed the secrecy, in part, to protecting its classified plans from adversaries. Guetlin said in January that bad actors have already been “hacking” into the defense industrial base.

The security concerns have forced officials to “go silent,” he said during a Space Systems Command conference.

The Defense Department held one industry conference in August to discuss its plans, but Guetlein said the office doesn’t plan to hold another one any time soon because the Pentagon became “too exposed” to security threats after the first conference. The Golden Dome czar said he’s instead been meeting one-on-one with companies in classified settings to communicate its needs.

Golden Dome will also require buy-in from key allies, such as Canada and Greenland, to use Arctic radars and airspace to track incoming missiles. But trade wars have stymied Guetlein’s interactions with allies, the general said last week — adding another layer of complexity to the effort.

Joe Gould and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.