The US Space Force has released a list of a dozen companies that will be working on Space-Based Interceptors (SBIs) for the Pentagon's Golden Dome initiative. For those unfamiliar, Golden Dome is a multilayer defense system intended to protect US territory from drones and ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile attacks. Because nothing says 'homeland security' like a space-based umbrella with a price tag that could rival a small country's GDP.
The roster of SBI contractors includes Anduril Industries, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics Mission Systems, GITAI USA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quindar, Raytheon, Sci-Tec, SpaceX, True Anomaly, and Turion Space. Some are household names in space, like SpaceX and Lockheed Martin. Others, like True Anomaly and Anduril, are newer to the orbital party but have big ambitions in the national security market. GITAI USA started as an in-space robotics company, which sounds like a solid foundation for building missile-killing satellites.
The Space Force made 20 individual awards to these 12 companies in late 2025 and early 2026 using something called Other Transaction Authority, or OTA, agreements. OTAs let the Pentagon bypass federal acquisition regulations and cast a wide net to attract more contractors - especially useful for rapid prototyping, which is exactly what the Space Force wants for the first phase of the SBI program. The agreements have a combined value of up to $3.2 billion and will capitalize on a mix of public and private investment to move SBIs closer to testing in low-Earth orbit.
Officials haven't released details of each company's contribution, citing 'operational security requirements.' Because of course they did. The agreements are for early-stage development and tech demos, not full-scale production, which will come with a significantly higher price tag - and presumably a lot more acronyms.
'Adversary capabilities are advancing rapidly, and our acquisition strategies must move even faster to counter the growing speed and maneuverability of modern missile threats,' said Col. Bryon McClain, program executive officer for space combat power at Space Systems Command. The OTA framework, he said, attracted both traditional and non-traditional vendors while harnessing American innovation and ensuring continuous competition. The Space Force expects to demonstrate an initial capability in 2028, which is either ambitious or optimistic, depending on your tolerance for government timelines.
In addition to SBIs, Golden Dome will include lower-altitude and ground-based munitions for eliminating drones and other smaller, slower-moving aerial weapons. All of this, the Space Force says, must be integrated with artificial intelligence to counter the speed, maneuverability, and lethality of the threats. Because if there's one thing we've learned from sci-fi, it's that AI-controlled missile defense systems never go awry.
The US and Israeli war with Iran has been an acid test for missile defense. Ground- and sea-based interceptors have shot down thousands of missiles and drones since the first wave of Iranian ballistic missiles launched toward Israel in 2024, with a success rate of more than 90 percent. But the war has also shown that missile defenses are not impenetrable, with at least seven US service members killed by hostile action and several costly early warning radars and US military aircraft damaged or destroyed on the ground by Iranian drone or missile strikes.
The Iran war has also diminished existing stocks of US missile interceptors, which the Pentagon plans to integrate with Golden Dome to form ground, sea, and airborne layers. Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins told a House subcommittee it will take a 'number of years to replenish' the interceptors used in less than two months of the Iran war.
Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Space Force general serving as director of the Golden Dome program, said replenishing those interceptors will have no schedule impact and 'no direct cost impact' on Golden Dome, which the Trump administration says will cost $185 billion to develop and deploy. Many analysts dispute the cost and schedule projections, with some estimates pegging Golden Dome's cost at several trillion dollars. Guetlein argues those outside estimates don't account for what the Pentagon is actually building - though since much of the Golden Dome architecture is secret, it's hard to know what that is.
Getting any working SBI capability into orbit in the next two-and-a-half years would require herculean efforts. Contractors would have to drastically cut down on the time it usually takes to deliver space systems of lesser complexity - which is to say, they'd need to move at something approaching the speed of a missile they're trying to intercept.
SBIs are widely seen as the most challenging and expensive element for Golden Dome. Space-based missile tracking sensors, satellite networks for targeting and data relay, and terrestrial interceptors already exist or will soon be operational. But SBIs may not be the panacea administration officials argued when President Donald Trump signed the executive order for Golden Dome in January 2025. The order calls for plans to deploy 'proliferated Space-Based Interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept.'
'We are so focused on affordability. If we cannot do it affordably, we will not go into production,' Guetlein said in an April 15 hearing. 'We are looking at the threats from a multi-domain perspective to make sure I have redundant capabilities and I don't have single points of failure. So, if boost-phase intercept from space is not affordable and scalable, we will not produce it, because we have other options to get after it.'
Boost-phase intercepts would aim to destroy a missile within a few minutes after its launch, when the heat from the exhaust plume makes it relatively easy to detect but requires a powerful impulse to reach. The military is also interested in using SBIs for midcourse intercepts and during glide phase as missiles reenter the atmosphere - though by then, a missile may have released countermeasures or multiple reentry vehicles, which rather defeats the purpose.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, questions the premise that Golden Dome could deter future attacks, pointing to Iran's sustained missile and drone strikes across the Middle East despite the operational success of US and Israeli defenses. 'That basic theory seems blown out of the water by our current experience,' Moulton said. 'We've been singing its praises in a very bipartisan way, and yet it has not stopped Iran in the least from shooting a lot of missiles and drones at us and our allies.'
Marc Berkowitz, the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, suggested Iran may be 'beyond deterrence,' having pursued nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles for decades. Which raises the question: if deterrence doesn't work, what's the point of a $185 billion space-based shield?
The Trump administration is requesting $17 billion for Golden Dome in fiscal year 2027, nearly all of it packaged in a reconciliation bill rather than the White House's regular annual funding request. While Republican lawmakers still voice support for Golden Dome, there is little appetite for the partisan budget battle a party-line reconciliation bill would spark ahead of this year's midterm elections. Putting the funding request in a bill that may never reach the House or Senate floor is 'not great signaling by this White House about the supposedly drastic need for Golden Dome,' a former defense official told Politico.
In other words, the Golden Dome might have a hole in it before it even gets off the ground.