It’s a crucial but often overlooked consideration at the heart of the proposed Golden Dome missile shield: How much power will it take to operate?
That question was in the spotlight Tuesday at a major Defense Department energy expo at the Pentagon, which featured more than 100 “energy innovation” exhibits on display, military officials said. A central focus was how the Pentagon intends to power President Trump’s ambitious Golden Dome missile shield, which aims to protect the entire continental United States from hypersonic, ballistic and other missile threats.
Across Washington, the debate has largely focused on the system’s cost, how quickly it can realistically become operational and whether the cutting-edge technologies expected to make up the system will be reliable long-term.
But the Golden Dome missile shield will require massive amounts of electricity to operate. The system is expected to include directed-energy weapons and an artificial intelligence-powered command-and-control system of virtually unprecedented scale. Officials said reliable power must be in place.
“We’re delivering the energy backbone for Golden Dome. We’re rapidly innovating to reduce integration risks for high-power weapon systems and advanced sensors,” Dale R. Marks, the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, said during remarks at Tuesday’s energy expo. “And if we want to deploy directed energy, high-energy microwave and advanced radar systems, we must solve the energy equation.”
“Energy is the lifeblood of the entire Golden Dome kill chain,” he said. “It goes from space-based early warning sensors to ground-based radar and kinetic and non-kinetic interceptors.”
Mr. Marks described directed energy weapons as potentially far cheaper than traditional weapons but also exceedingly “power hungry,” meaning the Pentagon needs affordable, reliable energy infrastructure to ensure the Golden Dome and all of its components would function even if an adversary targets traditional American power grids.
Questions over the Golden Dome’s energy appetite come against the backdrop of a broader national debate about the massive energy required to power today’s advanced AI models — and the sprawling data centers that accompany that usage.
The Trump administration estimates that the Golden Dome will cost roughly $185 billion over three years. But it’s unclear whether existing price estimates factor in the massive energy costs expected from running the system.
No comprehensive estimate exists for the power required to operate the entire Golden Dome system.
Mr. Marks pointed to two groundbreaking projects expected to deliver the needed energy for the project: the Army’s Tactical Microgrid Standard and the Navy’s Common Operational Resilience and Energy Storage.
The Army project aims to enable the “seamless integration of diverse power sources, including renewable energy, generators and storage systems, into a cohesive network” that can function as a self-sustaining power infrastructure, according to a description on the Army’s Small Business Innovation Research website.
The Navy project focuses on scaling backup power systems that can stay online even during disruptions to the civilian power grid, which most U.S. military installations still rely on.
The Trump administration argues that the Golden Dome is necessary because Russia, China and other actors are making huge investments in their ballistic and hypersonic weapons programs. The U.S. currently lacks a full missile shield protecting the entire country. There are growing fears that adversaries could exploit those defensive gaps as their missile technology improves.
The specific architecture of Golden Dome is classified, and its funding has been a continuous point of contention between lawmakers and the Pentagon. Space-based missile interceptors are a crucial component of the planned system, but are also widely expected to be the most expensive piece of the Golden Dome.
A May report from the Congressional Budget Office estimated the missile shield could cost as much as $1.2 trillion over 20 years, though the study makes clear that the estimate is not based on “a specific administration proposal.” The White House initially estimated that the entire Golden Dome project would cost $175 billion over three years, but that number has now risen to $185 billion.
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