Cnn
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The Pentagon has submitted small, medium and large options in the White House to develop “Golden Dome”, “ The vision of President Donald Trump for a cutting-edge missile shield that can protect the United States from long-range strikes that will likely cost hundreds of billions of dollars, according to several sources familiar with plans.
Trump should announce his favorite option – and his price – in the coming days, a decision that will ultimately draw a way to follow for the financing, development and implementation of the space defense system in the coming years.
Whatever the option for Trump opts, it will not be cheap; 25 billion dollars were sculpted in next year’s defense budget for the system, but the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the United States could spend more than $ 500 billion – over 20 years – to develop a viable golden dome.
The project will also present a boon for private entrepreneurs, because the government will not be able to build it alone, with companies such as Elon Musk SpaceX in the running for very lucrative contracts linked to the system.
The Ministry of Defense “has drawn up an architectural project and an implementation plan for a golden dome system that will protect the Americans and our homeland against a wide range of world missile threats,” the Pentagon spokesman and the main advisor Sean Parnell told CNN.
“The Secretary of Defense and the other heads of department have committed to the president to present the options and are looking forward to announce the way to follow in the coming days,” added Parnell.
A key element of the implementation plan will be the creation of a direct report programs manager – also known as “Tsar du Dôme d’Or” – which can supervise the development and deployment of the very complex system, according to three families with conversations.
General Michael A. Guetlein, vice-chief of space operations of the American spatial force, is attentive to the role for the role, declared the sources, noting that he is a four-star general with an experience in the purchase of anti-missile defense systems and emerging spaces based on space.
For the moment, however, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the golden dome and what it will ultimately look like.
Another person with direct knowledge of the options said that the system would ultimately include around 100 programs, many of which already live within the Ministry of Defense or Development. The “entirely new” aspect would be the control and control and integration layer of architecture, said this person.
“There are a lot of flavors different from what it might look,” said a senior manager of the familiar congress with the proposed plans of the Pentagon.
A complete anti-missile defense shield is a concept that the United States has continued for decades, but I have never achieved due to the shortcomings in technology and costs.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the United States needs an anti-missile defense program similar to that of Israel Iron domeBut the systems are separated from orders of magnitude. In practical terms, the comparison is less apples with oranges and more apples with aircraft carriers.
The anti -missile defense system of the Israeli iron dome selectively protects the populated areas of short -range threats in a country the size of New Jersey; Trump wants a spatial anti-missile defense system capable of defending all of the United States against advanced ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
The Defense Intelligence Agency recently published an unusual assessment entitled “Golden Dome for America”, stressing how American opponents such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea can target the American homeland with a variety of ballistic missiles, long -range cruise missiles, bombers and hypersonic missiles.
The basic political decision for Trump is largely focused on the new generation capacities to defend the United States against ICBM or hypersonic threats, added the Congress Manager, noting that it is clear that Golden Dome will require “a” significant research and development effort “.
Developing such a complex system will require the establishment of a network of government agencies and private entrepreneurs, the composition of which is not clear at this early stage, several sources familiar with the planning process said.
SpaceX is one of the companies that are competing for a role in the development of the Golden Dome and have informed Trump officials about a possible collaboration with two other entrepreneurs: Andundil and Palant, two familiar sources with the conversations told CNN. The three companies made artics directly to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who indicated that he wanted what they were selling, according to the sources.
High -level defense entrepreneurs and technological companies have taken a tour for a tart slice since Trump’s electoral victory in November.
And the lobbying campaign has increased since the president published a decree in January by ordering Hegseth to submit within 60 days of Dome Dome development options.
The ownership of Musk de Spacex, combined with its proximity to Trump, has put Democrats that urged the Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense to investigate the involvement of the technological billionaire in the process of allocating contracts related to Golden Dome.
But some defense officials, industry experts and congress sources have defended SpaceX’s possible involvement in Golden Dome, a source stressing that the company has already demonstrated expertise in the capacity of the sensor layer that the anti -missile defense system will need.
“So, like, yes, SpaceX is probably the main competitor, but they are the only legitimate store in town for that right now,” the source told CNN.
The contractual process should however be competitive and carried out through the defense innovation unit.
At a time when the Pentagon is You are looking to reduce budgetsThe Trump administration has ordered military officials to guarantee the future financing of the “gold dome” is reflected in new budgetary estimates for 2026, several sources said in CNN.
For the moment, the legislators have undertaken to carry out a “deposit on Golden Dome” within the framework of its reconciliation bill, said the manager of the Congress, with $ 25 billion in next year’s defense budget for satellites, space sensors and interceptors and the launch of the infrastructure.
“If you look at the credits, we have $ 7.2 billion only for the development, supply and integration of space sensors,” noted the manager. “And then there are $ 5.6 billion for the development, supply and integration of space interceptor capacity and in the boost phase.”
But this funding would only be a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated total cost of the development, implementation and maintenance of the system that Trump described, according to defense officials and industry experts.
“I am 34 years old in this company. I have never seen an overly high early estimate. This is the nature of the company,” said General Saltzman, head of space operations last week, when he asked last week about CBO costs at an event organized by Politico.
While defense officials and industry leaders are largely suitable for years before a system like Golden Dome is fully operational, the Trump administration is already on the chronometer to prove that the concept can work in order to justify the future financing of the project.
“Once the president has made the decision, how to execute a way that reaches a kind of initial operating capacity, as quickly as possible in these different fields which can end up being official of Golden Dome or not?” The manager of Congress told CNN.
But the project has already suffered from at least a self-inflicted delay in its early stages, CNN learned.
Trump had ordered HegSeth to present options to develop and implement the system by March 28, but the White House received these plans almost a month after the president’s initial deadline, the sources said.
Early delay – coupled with wider dysfunction In the interior circle of the Secretary of Defense – raised more questions about the question of whether Trump should allow someone else to assume the responsibility to supervise one of his most ambitious and costly political guidelines in the future, two of the familiar sources with internal discussions on the project at CNN in CNN.
Even before Hegseth is missing the deadline for March, several members of West Wing staff had become frustrated by what they described to others as a lack of responsiveness of his closest advisers – emphasizing how he had specifically had an impact on the efforts related to Dome Golden.
At one point to the start of HegSeth’s mandate, the White House tried to reach HegSeth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, so that the Pentagon chief signs a memo that launches the development process, but the memo has not signed for three weeks, according to a person familiar with the problem.
Hegseth has repeatedly insisted that Golden Dome is “under construction”, but Senator Jack Reed, the best democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee, reaffirmed Thursday that the system is still largely just a concept at this stage.