Musk’s SpaceX Leads Race to Build Trump’s Golden Dome Missile Shield

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.

Reuters reported on this, citing six people familiar with the matter.

Musk’s rocket and satellite company is partnering with software maker Palantir, opens new tab and drone builder Anduril in a bid to build key parts of Golden Dome.

The plan proposed by the three companies involves creating and launching between 400 and over 1,000 satellites into orbit. These satellites would circle the globe, detecting and tracking missile movements.

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.

Representatives from the three companies have held meetings in recent weeks with senior officials in the Trump administration and the Pentagon, outlining the details of their plan.

However, the sources told the agency that the decision-making process regarding the Golden Dome was in its early stages, and both the structure of the project and the companies involved could’ve changed in the future.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government would not own the system but would instead pay for access to the technology through a subscription-based service model, the report says.

According to two sources, this subscription model—previously unreported—could bypass certain Pentagon procurement protocols, allowing for a faster deployment of the system.

“While such an approach doesn’t violate any rules, it could leave the government locked into a subscription and lose control over the system’s development and pricing,” the journalists note.

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.”

Read also: America’s “Golden Dome” — the Return of “Star Wars”?

Previously, the U.S. Department of Defense signed a multibillion-dollar contract with Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to launch military satellites into space through 2029.