Overview

• President Trump signed an executive order in January to build the Golden Dome, a multilayered defense network of land, sea and space sensors and interceptors slated for operational readiness by 2029.
• Ottawa and Washington are in exploratory talks after Trump claimed Canada could join the system free as a U.S. state or pay a $61 billion fee as a separate nation, a proposal Canadian leaders have publicly rebuffed.
• The Congressional Budget Office projects the program’s cost could exceed $800 billion over two decades, dwarfing the administration’s $175 billion estimate.
• China’s Foreign Ministry and North Korea’s regime have condemned the initiative as a destabilizing venture that risks sparking an arms race in space.
• Defense firms including SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril are poised to win initial design contracts valued at up to $10 billion, even as experts question the shield’s technical feasibility and aggressive timeline.