Trump’s Golden Dome to Cost Up to 100 Times More Than Manhattan Project
▼ Summary
– President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield is projected to cost several hundred billion dollars over several decades for design, deployment, and sustainment.
– Congress has already committed $25 billion as a down payment for new missile-defense technologies, despite some lawmakers’ concerns about the uncertainty of costs.
– The White House estimated a $175 billion cost over three years, but a study suggests this is insufficient and implementation will take longer than planned.
– The program aims to defend against various aerial threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, plus drones and unguided missiles.
– Costs depend heavily on geographic coverage, threat types, and resilience, with even small changes potentially altering expenses by hundreds of billions of dollars.
The proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield, championed by former President Donald Trump, represents a financial undertaking of staggering proportions. Initial estimates place its total cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a figure that could ultimately dwarf even the Manhattan Project when adjusted for inflation. This ambitious initiative aims to protect the United States from a wide array of aerial threats, yet its full financial and operational scope remains largely undefined.
Lawmakers have expressed concern over the lack of detailed cost projections, though a Republican-led Congress already approved a $25 billion down payment for new missile defense technologies in July. The White House initially projected a three-year expenditure of $175 billion, but experts argue this number falls dramatically short of what would be required to realize the president’s vision.
A recent analysis from the American Enterprise Institute suggests the actual price tag could reach into the trillions, creating what researcher Todd Harrison describes as a “multi-trillion-dollar gap between rhetoric and reality.” The system is intended to counter ballistic, hypersonic, and advanced cruise missiles, along with drones and other emerging aerial threats, a breadth of coverage that demands unprecedented investment.
Harrison’s report, “Build Your Own Golden Dome,” outlines the complex decisions facing Pentagon planners. Geographic coverage, threat types, and system resilience each play critical roles in determining final costs, with even minor adjustments potentially adding hundreds of billions to the total. As defense officials work to define the program’s parameters, it becomes clear that Golden Dome is a project without real parallel in modern defense spending, both in ambition and in potential expense.
(Source: Ars Technica)
