SpaceX is leading a bid to build Golden Dome with startups

18/4/2025 5:50

Elon Musk's SpaceX and

two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part

of President Donald Trump's "Golden Dome" missile defense

shield, six people familiar with the matter said.



Musk's rocket and satellite company is partnering with

software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril on a

bid to build key parts of Golden Dome, the sources said, which

has drawn significant interest from the technology sector's

burgeoning base of defense startups.



In his January 27 executive order, Trump cited a missile

attack as "the most catastrophic threat facing the United

States."

All three companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been

major political supporters of Trump. Musk has donated more than

a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump, and now

serves as a special adviser to the president working to cut

government spending through his Department of Government

Efficiency.

Despite the Pentagon's positive signals to the SpaceX group,

some sources stressed the decision process for Trump's Golden

Dome is in its early stages. Its ultimate structure and who is

selected to work on it could change dramatically in the coming

months.



The three companies met with top officials in the Trump

administration and the Pentagon in recent weeks to pitch their

plan, which would build and launch 400 to more than 1,000

satellites circling the globe to sense missiles and track their

movement, sources said.



A separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with

missiles or lasers would then bring enemy missiles down, three

of the sources said. The SpaceX group is not expected to be

involved in the weaponization of satellites, these sources said.



One of the sources familiar with the talks described them as

"a departure from the usual acquisition process. There's an

attitude that the national security and defense community has to

be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk because of his role in

the government."



SpaceX and Musk have declined to comment on whether Musk is

involved in any of the discussions or negotiations involving

federal contracts with his businesses.



The Pentagon did not respond to detailed questions from

Reuters, only saying it will deliver "options to the President

for his decision in line with the executive order and in

alignment with White House guidance and timelines."



The White House, SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril also did not

respond to questions. After publication, Musk replied to a post

about Reuters' story on his social network X without

elaborating: "This is not true."







SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE



In an unusual twist, SpaceX has proposed setting up its

role in Golden Dome as a "subscription service" in which the

government would pay for access to the technology, rather than

own the system outright.



The subscription model, which has not been previously

reported, could skirt some Pentagon procurement protocols

allowing the system to be rolled out faster, the two sources

said. While the approach would not violate any rules, the

government may then be locked into a subscription and lose

control over its ongoing development and pricing, they added.



Some Pentagon officials have expressed concerns internally

about relying on the subscription-based model for any part of

the Golden Dome, two sources told Reuters. Such an arrangement

would be unusual for such a large and critical defense program.



U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein has been in talks

on whether SpaceX should be the owner and operator of its part

of the system, the two sources said. Other options include

having the U.S. own and operate the system, or having the U.S.

own it while contractors handle operations. Guetlein did not

respond to a request for comment.

Retired Air Force General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, a top SpaceX

advisor to Musk, has been involved in the company's recent

discussions with senior defense and intelligence leaders, the

two sources said. O'Shaughnessy did not respond to requests for

comment.



Should the group led by SpaceX win a Golden Dome contract,

it would be the biggest win for Silicon Valley in the lucrative

defense contracting industry and a blow to the traditional

contractors.



However, those long-standing contractors, such as Northrop

Grumman, Boeing and RTX are expected to

be big players in the process as well, people familiar with the

companies said. Lockheed Martin put up a webpage as a

part of its marketing efforts.







MANY BIDS



The Pentagon has received interest from more than 180

companies keen to help develop and build the Golden Dome,

according to a U.S. official, including defense startups like

Epirus, Ursa Major and Armada. Members of the White House's

National Security Council were briefed by a handful of companies

about their capabilities, four sources said.



The Pentagon's number two, former private equity investor

Steve Feinberg, will be a key decision-maker for Golden Dome,

two U.S. defense officials said.



Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management which has

invested in the cutting-edge hypersonic missiles industry but

not in SpaceX. Feinberg, who did not respond to a request for

comment, has said he would divest of all his interests in

Cerberus when he joined the administration.



Some experts believe the overall cost for Golden Dome could

reach hundreds of billions of dollars. The Pentagon established

several timelines for capabilities to be delivered starting with

early 2026 to those delivered after 2030.



Laura Grego, research director at the nonprofit Union of

Concerned Scientists, questioned the feasibility of such a

defense system given that multiple studies have concluded it is

a “bad idea, expensive and vulnerable.”



“Such a system could be overwhelmed by launching multiple

weapons at the same time, pushing the required size of the

defense to very large numbers – potentially in the tens of

thousands of satellites,” Grego said.

SpaceX is pitching for the part of the Golden Dome initiative

called the "custody layer," a constellation of satellites that

would detect missiles, track their trajectory, and determine if

they are heading toward the U.S., according to two sources

familiar with SpaceX's goals.



SpaceX has estimated the preliminary engineering and design

work for the custody layer of satellites would cost between $6

billion and $10 billion, two of the sources said. In the last

five years, SpaceX has launched hundreds of operational spy

satellites and more recently several prototypes, which could be

retrofitted to be used for the project, the sources said.



Reuters reviewed an internal Pentagon memo from Defense

Secretary Peter Hegseth issued shortly before a February 28

deadline to senior Pentagon leadership asking them for initial

Golden Dome proposals and calling for the "acceleration of the

deployment" of constellations of satellites.



The time frame could give SpaceX an advantage because of its

fleet of rockets, including the Falcon 9, and existing

satellites that could be repurposed for the missile defense

shield, the people familiar with the plan said.



Despite these advantages, some of those familiar with the

discussions said it was uncertain whether the SpaceX group would

be able to efficiently set up a system with new technology in a

cost-effective way that can protect the United States from

attack.



"It remains to be seen whether SpaceX and these tech

companies will be able to pull any of this off," said one of the

sources. "They've never had to deliver on an entire system that

the nation will need to rely on for its defense."



Separately, some Democrats in Congress expressed concern

about Musk's bidding on federal contracts while serving in the

White House.



“When the richest man in the world can become a Special

Government Employee and exert influence over the flow of

billions of dollars of taxpayer money in government contracts to

his companies, that’s a serious problem,” said U.S. Senator

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Armed Services

Committee.



Shaheen has introduced new legislation that would prevent

federal contracts from being issued to companies owned by any

special government employee like Musk.



U.S. Rep. Donald Beyer, D-Va, told Reuters he was also

concerned about SpaceX’s role given Musk’s unprecedented “inside

access to non-public information and data.”



“Any contracts awarded to him, or his companies, are

suspicious,” he said.