Golden Dome budget plan gets $10B plus-up to accelerate space capabilities

The Defense Department's Golden Dome missile defense architecture has received a $10 billion budget increase, bringing its total projected cost to $185 billion, according to Gen. Michael Guetlein, director of the Office of Golden Dome for America. The additional funding will accelerate development of three key space-based systems: airborne moving target indication (AMTI), the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS), and the Space Data Network. President Trump approved the original $175 billion architecture in May 2025, and Congress allocated $25 billion for the project last year through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Guetlein must deliver an operational Golden Dome capability by summer 2028, though he cited scaling production at affordable costs—not technology development—as his primary challenge. An industry consortium of nine prime contractors, including Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman, will handle command-and-control development under a collaborative model where firms vote to remove underperformers.