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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — The Golden Dome missile shield will have to overcome enormous technological, logistical and financial obstacles to become operational by President Trump’s 2028 target date.
Still, its biggest hurdle might be an “entrenched” Pentagon bureaucracy that military insiders fear could doom the project.
Behind the scenes at the recent Space Symposium in Colorado, high-ranking retired military officials and defense industry leaders wondered whether Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, director of the Golden Dome project and the administration’s point man on the missile shield, would truly have the autonomy and decision-making power needed to make the proposal a reality within such a tight time frame. With numerous military branches, federal agencies, Pentagon offices and powerful defense contractors deeply involved, some defense insiders say the project — the most sweeping missile defense shield in history, designed to defend the entire continental United States — could become a victim of its own ambition.
“Will we get there in three years? Not with the current bureaucracy. But they gave Gen. Mike Guetlein all the authority and responsibility to do that. Now will they let him?” said retired Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander of U.S. Strategic Command, among other prominent military roles.
“If they don’t let him, you’ll not get there in three years. We won’t get there in six years, we won’t get there in 10 years,” Gen. Hyten told The Washington Times during a media roundtable at the annual Space Symposium. “But if they let him, and they let him run and they let him contract and they let him do things, try and fail, we’ll have an amazing capability in three years.”
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SPECIAL COVERAGE: Golden Dome for America
The Golden Dome project, Gen. Hyten said, will have to overcome “the most entrenched, self-defensive bureaucracy I’ve ever seen” inside the Pentagon. Gen. Hyten argued that the only way for a project as daunting and technologically complex as the Golden Dome to succeed is to give one person near-unlimited power to make decisions and cut through what otherwise could be mountains of insurmountable red tape and competing priorities.
The Golden Dome aims to protect the U.S. from ballistic and hypersonic missile strikes, including potential strikes from China and Russia, both of which have highly advanced missile programs.
Iran, North Korea and other actors also have missile programs that theoretically could threaten the U.S. homeland.
Trump administration officials have described a “layered defense” system that includes space-based interceptors and existing ground-based missile defense systems, meaning the U.S. would have multiple opportunities to intercept any incoming missile. Some defense industry leaders have said the system should include sea-based assets off both coasts and in the Gulf of America, adding an additional layer of strategic projection.
Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems are expected to drive the groundbreaking network of satellites, sensors, interceptors and other assets that will form the Golden Dome.
Many of the details surrounding the Golden Dome’s technical architecture remain classified, but publicly available information about the project’s budget offers a window into the bureaucratic pitfalls Gen. Guetlein and his team face.
SEE ALSO: WATCH: Is the Golden Dome for America even possible?
Jules W. Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense and comptroller, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday that in fiscal year 2027, the Pentagon will direct Golden Dome funds toward constructing the “infrastructure to build situational awareness and sense threats.”
The White House initially estimated that the entire Golden Dome project would cost $175 billion over three years, though most outside estimates put the true cost much, much higher.
Gen. Guetlein reportedly told a recent defense conference that the concrete price tag is now at least $185 billion, reflecting an additional $10 billion for space-based systems included in the missile shield.
Only about $23 billion has been allocated to the program so far. The White House’s 2027 budget request includes another $17.1 billion, bringing the total to about $40 billion.
According to White House budget documents, that includes: $4.5 billion for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency to improve current ground-based missile interceptors and begin building next-generation interceptors and sensors; $4.5 billion for U.S. Space Force low earth orbit sensor and tracking satellites; $615 million for Air Force airborne sensors, battle management aircraft and integration with existing air and missile defenses; $427 million for the Army’s ground-based anti-missile systems; and other allocations spread across the Pentagon.
Gen. Guetlein is tasked with ensuring each of those elements, and many others, works together to build one coherent system.
What’s possible by 2028?
Another major question hanging over the project is what is feasible by the end of Mr. Trump’s term.
Analysts generally agree that the U.S. is highly unlikely by that time to have a fully functional missile shield, complete with space-based interceptors, capable of handling every conceivable level of missile attack from a potential enemy, up to and including a full-blown nuclear assault by a rival such as Russia or China.
Yet industry leaders say key pieces of the Golden Dome can be operational on the president’s schedule. It seems increasingly likely that early iterations of the missile shield will rely heavily on existing missile defense assets, likely including Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-ballistic missile defense batteries, while more complex space-based capabilities are developed and incorporated into the broader system later.
“You don’t necessarily have to protect the entirety of an area to achieve the intent you’re trying to achieve,” Art Loureiro, director of space defense solutions at defense contractor L3Harris, told The Times at Space Symposium.
“You have to be strategic in how you protect,” he said. “Whether it’s the national capital region [around Washington], whether it’s a place like Colorado Springs because of the center of gravity of the [military] operation centers … or whether it’s over a nuclear sub base so that you can still be able to project combat forces into an area of responsibility for a combatant command.”
Mr. Loureiro said technology such as space-based missile interceptors “is going to take a little more time” because of the complexity involved, a reality most stakeholders in the project acknowledge.
• Mike Glenn, John T. Seward and Bill Gertz contributed to this report.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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