Trump's proposed 'Golden Dome' estimated to cost $1.2T over 20 years
AP News • • nation
Key Points:
- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that President Donald Trump’s proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system, designed to place weapons in space, could cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years, far exceeding the initial $175 billion estimate given by Trump.
- The CBO report highlights significant uncertainty due to a lack of detailed information from the Defense Department, making it difficult to accurately project the long-term costs of the program.
- The Golden Dome system, inspired in part by Israel’s Iron Dome, aims to integrate ground and space-based technologies to detect and intercept missiles at various stages of an attack.
- Congress has already allocated approximately $24 billion for the missile defense initiative, but critics like Senator Jeff Merkley describe the project as an excessive subsidy to defense contractors funded by taxpayers.
- Previous estimates by the CBO suggested that just the space-based elements of the system could cost up to $542 billion over 20 years, indicating the high financial stakes involved in the program.