By Naveen Athrappully
Contributing Writer
The U.S. Space Force has awarded SpaceX $4.16 billion to build a network of satellites that will form one of the layers of the Trump administration’s Golden Dome for America project.
SpaceX will use the funds for the Golden Dome’s Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) program, which aims to establish a “persistent, global capability to sense and track airborne targets from space,” the Space Systems Command, part of the Space Force, said in a Friday statement.
SB-AMTI will integrate advanced space-based sensors, secure and rapid communication links, and resilient ground processing.
The funding is expected to enable the fielding of a satellite constellation by 2028, providing the military with early capability to eliminate operational blind spots.
The Golden Dome project is a multilayered defense system designed to protect the United States from advanced missiles and other aerial threats, including cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Golden Dome is designed with a space layer, which is the first line of threat detection; a strategic intercept layer where missiles targeting the United States are countered; an underlayer where regional and theater-level defense systems exist; and a command and control layer, according to Lockheed Martin, one of the companies involved in the Golden Dome project.
AMTI is part of the space-based layer that includes other systems such as the Space-Based Infrared System and over-the-horizon radars.
Space Systems Command said SpaceX is one of numerous companies in the SB-AMTI vendor pool. The command is responsible for acquiring, developing, and delivering various capabilities to protect America’s strategic advantage in space.
A few days earlier, on May 26, the Space Force announced a $2.29 billion contract with SpaceX to establish a high-speed satellite communications network connecting weapons platforms and military sensors worldwide.
The deal concerns the Space Data Network Backbone, a satellite constellation. Once implemented, SDN will allow data to be moved from missile warning and tracking sensors to interceptors in real time — a key capability for the Golden Dome project.
SpaceX’s contracts come as the company is planning to go public, according to a May 20 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The initial public offering could value SpaceX at $1.75 trillion, which would instantly make it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies worldwide.
On Friday, Space Systems Command also announced the award of a task order to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to launch a national reconnaissance mission.
Golden Dome Cost Concerns
A major area of concern about the Golden Dome is the amount that taxpayers would have to fund for the project. When the initiative was announced in May 2025 by President Donald Trump, it was assessed to cost around $175 billion.
A September 2025 report from the American Enterprise Institute said that the final cost could be much higher.
“A system that protects against the full range of aerial threats posed by peer and near-peer adversaries could cost $3.6 trillion, and even then, it would fall short of the ‘100%’ effectiveness claimed,” the report said.
However, Golden Dome director Gen. Michael Guetlein dismissed such trillion-dollar estimates during a March 17 conference, assessing the project to cost $185 billion.
Meanwhile, senior leaders from the U.S. government, defense industry, and Department of War met in April to discuss updates regarding the Golden Dome project, according to an April 23 statement from the DOW.
Officials at the event confirmed that the project was “ahead of schedule and on budget,” the DOW said.
Emil Michael, undersecretary of war for research and engineering, discussed the project’s innovative foundation during the meeting.
“We are embracing an open architecture that harnesses the full power of American innovation — from artificial intelligence to the commercial space industry — to build the impenetrable shield that this nation deserves,” Michael said.
Meanwhile, the DOW’s fiscal year 2027 budget request allocates $17.9 billion for the Golden Dome project.
The funds will be used to support the development of “game-changing space-based missile defense sensors and interceptors, kinetic and non-kinetic missile defeat and defense capabilities, and enabling technologies for a layered, next-generation homeland missile defense system,” the document said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
