Golden Dome funding lags as industry partners line up

The head of President Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense program gave a classified briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that described the secretive architecture of the project, The Washington Times has learned.

U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, who was tapped earlier this year by Mr. Trump to lead the design of Golden Dome, told committee members about key target dates for the project’s delivery.

Gen. Guetlein also outlined how the project will integrate missile detection capabilities and early warning systems, according to two sources familiar with the briefing who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss aspects of the classified meeting.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, a member of the Armed Services Committee, confirmed to The Times that the briefing occurred but declined to comment on specifics due to the classified nature of the planned Golden Dome architecture.

Mr. Sullivan, an Alaska Republican who is routinely involved with the military’s missile defense programs due to his state’s strategic geographic location, said he was impressed with Gen. Guetlein’s presentation.

“He just has a really good sense of how he wants to layer it and put it together,” the senator said. “He’s got a plan, you know, it’s got like 30-day, 60-day, 120-day, and I thought it was good.”

Speculation about the specific architecture of Golden Dome is rampant among defense industry insiders. So is unease over the status of some $24.5 billion in funding that Congress approved earlier this year for the missile shield’s development.

Multiple sources have told The Times that none of the money has thus far been allocated for contracts, and that White House Office of Management and Budget is currently holding the funds.

Some defense strategy analysts say Congress’ approval of the money was unprecedented.

The initial $24.5 billion was included in the passage of H.R. 1, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” in July. At the time, Mr. Trump touted the money as an initial down payment for Golden Dome.

“Congress pre-appropriated $24.5 billion without a program plan, scheduled requirements — nothing,” says Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“Never have we seen that much money appropriated in advance of a program actually starting,” Mr. Harrison said during a virtual panel discussion last week.

The discussion, hosted by the Center for New American Security, was titled: “Stuck in the Cul-de-Sac: How U.S. Defense Spending Prioritizes Innovation over Deterrence.”

Mr. Harrison asserted that the actual capability goals of Golden Dome have yet to be publicly defined by the Pentagon or the Trump administration.

Analysts estimate the missile shield will be a multi-decade program costing hundreds of billions of dollars for space-based and other futuristic missile defense capabilities that will continue to evolve technically over time.

Under the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the initial funding was made available for the next four years, with spending flexibility baked into the law that could make oversight by Congress difficult.

There is consensus among many in the national security community that Golden Dome is urgently needed amid rising nuclear and ballistic missile threats from U.S. adversaries, most notably Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

The potential for systems involved in the project to be focused on every threat — from small drones, fulfilling a counter small uncrewed systems (C-sUAS) role — all the way up to protecting against things “like a strategic nuclear strike from Russia or China, or both of them simultaneously, or a rogue missile from North Korea,” exist, according to Mr. Harrison.

Such concerns didn’t stop the initial funding for Golden Dome from being approved by law, a situation that has drawn criticism from some Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, has called the $24.5 billion for Golden Dome a “slush fund” and said he anticipates the Trump administration may try to use the funds however it sees fit.

“We’re still waiting for really detailed plans,” Mr. Reed said. “It’s such a comprehensive program but there’s nothing there yet. What is the priority?”

But there is a sense of optimism among many in private industry, both with regard to the funding and with regard to Gen. Guetlein’s progress. Robert Lightfoot, the president of Lockheed Martin Space, said space is now a “war-fighting domain.”

“The threat is real,” Mr. Lightfoot said during an exclusive interview on the “Threat Status” podcast. “You see initiatives like Golden Dome that are going to have a space component for sure. I think that’s the place where the U.S. has begun to talk about, ’Are we going to have weapons or offensive capability in space and not just be defensive for the assets that we have?’”

Overall, the program will be one of the most widely cross-integrated projects in recent history.

In another exclusive interview on the “Threat Status” podcast Joe DeAntona, vice president for requirements and capabilities, land and air defense at Raytheon, said it will be a “Team USA” collaboration effort to bring together some of the largest contractors in the defense space to work on Golden Dome.

“Uniforms, industry, civilian leaders, Team USA is going to come together and we are going to produce and present to the American people something they can be proud of,” Mr. DeAntona said. “The braintrust that’s being committed to this mission set is exciting.”