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Elon Musk has emerged as a frontrunner in President Donald Trump’s plans to build a ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense shield.
Musk’s SpaceX company is partnering with software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril to build key parts of Golden Dome, six sources told Reuters.
All three of the companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been supporters of Trump, with Musk also serving as a special adviser to the president as the chief of DOGE.
The Pentagon has reacted positively to SpaceX being involved in the project, which would build and launch hundreds of satellites around the globe to sense missiles and track their movements.
Another fleet of around 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers would then bring enemy missiles down, according to sources.
The decision process is still in its early days however, and who is selected to work on certain elements could change.
Defense Department officials will soon brief the president on three options for him to choose from, according to NBC News.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others will show him the plans in what has been referred to as ‘Goldilocks options’, small, medium and large, with each option coming with its own timeline and price tag, the outlet reported.
US Space Command said last week that they had handed their finalized options to Hegseth for his review and approval.
The Pentagon has reacted positively to SpaceX being involved in the project, which would build and launch hundreds of satellites around the globe to sense missiles and track them
Musk’s SpaceX company is partnering with software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril to build key parts of Golden Dome. The above image is AI generated
The three companies met with top officials in the Trump administration and the Pentagon recently to pitch their ideas.
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’, they said.
SpaceX has proposed that they set up Golden Dome as a ‘subscription service’, in which the government would pay for access to the tech, rather than own the whole system.
The subscription model 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 of those inside the Pentagon have expressed concerns about relying on such a model, with the arrangement unusual for such a large defense program.
The Pentagon received interest from over 180 companies keen to develop and build the system.
All three of the companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been supporters of Trump, with Musk also serving as a special adviser to the president as the chief of DOGE
Some experts believe it could cost hundreds of billions of dollars, SpaceX has estimated the preliminary engineering and design for the satellites would cost between $6 billion and $10 billion, two sources told Reuters.
The system was ordered by Trump during his first week in office, and if successful, would mark the first time the U.S. would place weapons in space that are meant to destroy ground-based missiles within seconds of launch.
In his January executive order, Trump gave the military 60 days to provide him recommendations on what an overall system would look like.
President Ronald Regan had proposed a similar space-based defense system, but the Strategic Defense Initiative, known as Star Wars, didn’t come to fruition.
Developments in hypersonic missiles have prompted calls by the US military to develop more ways to defend against missile strikes.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of Space Command, said in a speech kicking off the annual Space Symposium last week, said: ‘It’s time that we can clearly say that we need space fires and we need weapons systems.
‘We need orbital interceptors. We call these weapons, and we need them to deter a space conflict and to be successful if we end up in such a fight.’