CBO Puts $1.2T Price Tag on Golden Dome

Northrop Grumman Taps Apex for Golden Dome SBI Collab Northrop Grumman is on track to deliver on-orbit missile defense capabilities with Apex in 2027. President Donald Trump likes expensive things. So he’s probably going to love the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, which estimates the Golden Dome missile-defense system could cost $1.2T over the next 20 years. The estimate is an order of magnitude larger than the $185B figure proposed by Golden Dome chief Gen. Michael Guetlein in March—in large part because of the “limited information available” about the architecture of the missile defense system. The report explains the discrepancy in one of two ways: The estimate: Luckily for the US space industry, the cost to acquire and operate a fleet of space-based interceptor (SBI) satellites accounts for ~70% of the estimate. While the total figure is staggering, it doesn’t include many of the costs that could arise during the Golden Dome’s development and deployment, including: The CBO also cautioned that costs could grow even higher over time. Factors include: Filling the cracks: While the DoD has been secretive about the specifics of the planned Golden Dome architecture, the CBO pointed to many ways in which adversaries could attempt to overwhelm any system the US eventually builds. While CBO acknowledged it would be an improvement over current defenses, the report states that—even at that price tag—“it would not be an impenetrable shield or be able to fully counter a large attack of the sort that Russia or China might be able to launch.” The CBO estimate assumes that Golden Dome would be capable of defending the US against 10 ICBMs launched simultaneously. Anything more complex would only further increase costs—potentially requiring a larger constellation of SBI sats. Adversaries could still break through this defense by increasing their arsenals and launching overwhelming attacks, the CBO stated, which could lead the US to balloon its defenses even further than the Golden Dome architecture analyzed here.