Golden Dome Funding for 2027 Is in Doubt — The Hill
In the United States, funding for the Golden Dome missile defense program for fiscal year 2027 has been called into question. As The Hill reports, the Pentagon is requesting $17 billion for the project as part of a proposed $350 billion budget reconciliation package, while the base defense budget includes only $400 million.
Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the program had no funds at the start of the new fiscal year. According to him, its future depends on budget appropriations for 2027.
Disputes over the funding method
During a hearing on September 29, Republican Senator Mike Rounds said that the launch of Golden Dome should have been funded on a bipartisan basis rather than through the budget reconciliation process. Senator Angus King, the minority representative on the Senate Armed Services subcommittee, called the initiative one of the largest and most expensive projects undertaken by the U.S. government.
An additional problem has been the temporary federal government funding measure, which since October 1 has kept spending at the previous year's level. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, who leads the program, previously warned that such a mechanism does not help Golden Dome because the project has no base funding level from which spending could be calculated.
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Cost and capabilities of the system
President Donald Trump announced his intention to create a large-scale missile defense shield in January 2025. The plan calls for the use of space-based interceptor missiles to protect the continental United States from ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, as well as other aerial threats.
In May, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the development, deployment and operation of Golden Dome at $1.2 trillion over 20 years. Of this amount, $740 billion may be needed for a space-based early warning and missile tracking system, $270 billion for ground-based defense layers, and another $180 billion for sensors, research and development. At the same time, Guetlein estimated the cost of the system at $185 billion in March.
During the hearing, lawmakers also raised the question of the actual scale of protection. Karako suggested that the proposed system could cover individual large cities and critical infrastructure rather than the entire country.
