The U.S. Trump administration is increasing its search for companions to construct the Golden Dome missile protection system, courting Amazon.com’s Project Kuiper and large defence contractors as tensions with Elon Musk threaten SpaceX’s dominance in this system, in accordance to three sources acquainted with the matter.
The shift marks a strategic pivot away from reliance on Musk’s SpaceX, whose Starlink and Starshield satellite tv for pc networks have turn out to be central to U.S. army communications. It comes amid a deteriorating relationship between Trump and Musk, which culminated in a public falling-out on June 5.
Even earlier than the spat, officers on the Pentagon and White House had begun exploring alternatives to SpaceX, cautious of over-reliance on a single associate for large parts of the formidable, $175 billion space-based protection defend, two of the sources stated. SpaceX didn’t reply to requests for remark. Responding to a publish in regards to the Reuters story on X, Musk wrote, “Federal acquisition regulations require using the best provider at the best price. Anything else would be breaking the law.”
Due to its dimension, observe report of launching greater than 9,000 of its personal Starlink satellites, and expertise in authorities procurement, SpaceX nonetheless has the within observe to help with main parts of the Golden Dome, particularly launch contracts, sources say.
Project Kuiper, which has launched simply 78 of a deliberate constellation of three,000 low-earth orbit satellites, has been approached by the Pentagon to be a part of the trouble, signaling the administration’s openness to integrating business tech companies into nationwide protection infrastructure and going past conventional protection gamers.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s govt chairman, informed Reuters in January that Kuiper could be “primarily commercial,” however acknowledged “there will be defense uses for these [low-earth orbit] constellations, no doubt.”
A spokesperson for Project Kuiper declined to remark for this story. The Pentagon declined to remark. The White House didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Golden Dome’s ambitions mirror these of Israel’s Iron Dome, a homeland missile defence defend, however a bigger, extra complicated layered defence system requires an unlimited community of orbiting satellites protecting extra territory.
In the search for extra distributors for the satellite tv for pc layers of Golden Dome, “Kuiper is a big one,” a U.S. official stated. While SpaceX stays a frontrunner due to its unmatched launch capabilities, its share of the programme might shrink, two of the individuals stated. Officials have reached out to new entrants like rocket firms Stoke Space and Rocket Lab are gaining traction and can be ready to bid on particular person launches because the programme matures, in accordance to the U.S. official.
Later within the improvement of Golden Dome “each individual launch is going to get bid, and we have to actually give bids to other people,” moreover SpaceX, the official stated.
There is an pressing want for extra satellite tv for pc manufacturing. Last yr Congress gave Space Force a $13 billion mandate, up from $900 million, to purchase satellite-based communication companies in what was broadly seen as one in all many efforts to stimulate personal sector satellite tv for pc manufacturing. Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a $10 billion initiative led by former Starlink managers dismissed by Musk for sluggish progress, Reuters has reported, has lagged behind SpaceX in deployment. But its potential defence purposes, similar to communications that might assist missile monitoring, have drawn renewed curiosity because the administration prepares to allocate the primary $25 billion tranche of funding authorised below Trump’s sweeping tax and spending invoice.
Traditional defence giants Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and L3Harris are additionally in talks to help Golden Dome. L3Harris CFO Kenneth Bedingfield informed Reuters in an interview the corporate has seen a surge in curiosity in its missile warning and monitoring applied sciences, that are anticipated to play a key function within the system.
Northrop, in the meantime, is pursuing a number of efforts together with a space-based interceptor, a part that may allow missile strikes from orbit, Robert Fleming, the top of the corporate’s area enterprise, informed Reuters in an interview.
“Lockheed Martin is ready to support Golden Dome for America as a proven mission partner,” Robert Lightfoot, president of Lockheed Martin Space, stated in an announcement. Golden Dome’s preliminary outreach this spring invited smaller, newer Silicon Valley companies seen as nimbler, extra refined and doubtlessly cheaper alternatives to the large defence companies to the desk, however that was earlier than the Musk-Trump feud upended that calculus. Several with shut ties to Trump apart from SpaceX, together with Palantir and Anduril, had been thought-about early frontrunners to win large items of the $175 billion mission.
But the Musk-Trump feud has reshaped the aggressive panorama. Musk lately launched the “America Party,” a tech-centric, centrist political motion geared toward defeating Republicans who backed Trump’s tax-and-spend agenda.
Trump launched the Golden Dome initiative only a week into his second time period, pushing for fast deployment. Space Force General Michael Guetlein, confirmed by the Senate on July 17, is about to lead the programme with sweeping authority.
Under a beforehand unreported directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Guetlein has 30 days from affirmation to construct a crew, 60 days to ship an preliminary system design, and 120 days to current a full implementation plan, together with satellite tv for pc and floor station particulars, two individuals briefed on the memo stated.
Hours after Reuters revealed its story Tuesday morning, the Pentagon issued a press launch acknowledging that an structure for Golden Dome can be “developed within the next 60 days.” The inclusion of business platforms like Kuiper raises safety considerations. Its satellites would want to be hardened towards cyberattacks and digital warfare, a problem that has plagued even SpaceX’s Starlink community. In May 2024, Elon Musk stated SpaceX was spending “significant resources combating Russian jamming efforts. This is a tough problem.”
Beyond the technical and political challenges, Golden Dome might reshape world safety dynamics. A totally operational space-based missile defend could immediate adversaries to develop new offensive capabilities or speed up the militarisation of area.
Still, established protection gamers like Lockheed and RTX, previously Raytheon, will seemingly be on the entrance of the road for contracts. Executives at RTX, maker of the Patriot missile protection system, stated on Tuesday they consider the system goes to be integral to Golden Dome “especially if you want to make a significant impact over the next 2 to 3 years.”
