The Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense project is expanding its secretive network of space-based, missile-detecting satellites with a $1.75 billion dual contract for two defense technology firms, despite concerns on Capitol Hill about ballooning costs.
The Space Development Agency, an arm of the U.S. Space Force, has announced that roughly $955 million will go to Florida-based L3Harris Technologies for the production of 18 “Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor” satellites.
The other roughly $798 million will go to Colorado-based Sierra Space “to provide 18 missile warning/missile tracking variant [space vehicles] across two orbital planes,” the agency said Monday in a press release.
Meanwhile, some U.S. lawmakers are concerned about drastically varying long-term cost estimates for creating the Golden Dome, a signature defense initiative of President Trump, who has vowed to deliver the system to counter growing missile threats from adversaries such as China, Russia and North Korea.
Golden Dome has received substantial support from Republicans in Congress, but several Democrats have opposed the system, and potential cost overruns are cited as a major concern.
Analysts have continued to request more information about the secretive missile defense system. In 2025, the Pentagon issued a gag order forbidding U.S. military officials from discussing the technical specifics of Golden Dome’s architecture.
Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, director of Golden Dome for America and former vice chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force — widely known as Mr. Trump’s “Golden Dome czar” — revealed in late 2025 that he had held “one-vs.-one” talks with more than 300 private companies to hash out the secretive architecture.
He told an audience in December 2025 that although the Golden Dome’s layered design remained classified, he was confident “our industry partners have a pretty good insight into what we’re doing.” He said the president wanted the system operational over the entire U.S. homeland by mid-2028.
Congress approved $24.4 billion in Golden Dome funding for fiscal year 2025 and another $13.4 billion for this year.
Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee have described the funding as a “slush fund.”
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the total cost will exceed $1.2 trillion over 20 years, even as the Pentagon estimates the total to be approximately $185 billion over 10 years.
The CBO has predicted that nearly 7,800 space-based interceptors in low earth orbit will be needed to defend against just 10 incoming missiles. The office has warned that a major ballistic and hypersonic missile attack by adversaries could overwhelm the Golden Dome.
Gen. Guetlein has downplayed such concerns. “They’re not estimating what we’re building,” he said at an event in May.
The U.S. Space Force has said it will leverage at least 12 defense contractors to produce the Golden Dome.
Some defense industry insiders see the HBTSS satellites referenced in the Space Development Agency press release Monday as essential pieces of the overall system.
Mr. Trump’s January 2025 executive order for the system explicitly called for the “acceleration of the deployment” of an HBTSS satellite layer.
L3Harris Technologies had been working with the Space Development and Missile Defense agencies on launching HBTSS satellites before Mr. Trump’s executive order.
L3Harris Vice President Ed Zoiss said in an interview on The Washington Times’ Threat Status Influencers program in 2025 that the HBTSS system tracks missiles using infrared technology, which can be tricky with futuristic hypersonic glide missiles, whose speeds change in more complex ways than conventional intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“The goal of this satellite is to find [the] dim heat signature for that hypersonic weapon and then to track it,” he said, adding that L3Harris had successfully demonstrated that “it can be done from space.”
Other industry insiders say space-based interceptors and tracking systems will be used to close a gap in defenses when combined with current ground- and sea-based missile defense systems to protect against a new generation of threats to the U.S. homeland.
The Space Development Agency said this week’s contracts signal the “accelerated proliferation of missile defense sensing in support of Golden Dome.”
Previous contracts have gone to defense companies Anduril, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, GITAI USA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quindar, Raytheon, Sci-Tec, SpaceX, True Anomaly and Turion Space Corp.
L3Harris will produce its satellites for the system out of facilities in Indiana and Florida.
L3Harris Chairman and CEO Christopher Kubasik said in a statement Monday that the company “invested ahead of need by expanding production facilities.”
The Space Development Agency has described itself as a “constructive disruptor” in space acquisition.
Sierra Space said in a press release that its new contract is for the production of satellites for what it called the “Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3 (AMDT3) tracking layer.”
The release quoted Sierra Space CEO Dan Jablonsky as saying, “AMDT3 is proof that our approach is working, and we’re just getting started.”
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