Budget Instability Puts Golden Dome at Risk, Guetlein Warns

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—The four-star general in charge of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program warned that uncertainty around the Pentagon’s $350 billion reconciliation request could slow progress on the homeland missile defense effort, a top priority for President Donald Trump. 

To date, the Pentagon’s strategy for funding the $185 billion program has been to bypass the annual budget process and rely instead on a separate funding maneuver called reconciliation, which isn’t subject to standard appropriations rules and can be passed by a simple majority in both chambers of Congress.

That approach allowed the program to hit the ground running last year after Trump signed an executive order announcing the initiative, according to Golden Dome Director Gen. Michael Guetlein. As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed in 2025, Golden Dome received $25 billion—90 percent of which it has since obligated, Guetlein told an audience Aug. 11 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here. 

This year, the Pentagon requested $17 billion for the effort as part of a proposed $350 billion reconciliation package and just $400 million in the normal “base” budget for fiscal 2027. This time around, though, there appears to be little political will to pass another spending bill via reconciliation, leaving Golden Dome without a clear path for near-term funding.

“We’ve got to figure out as a nation a different way of funding Golden Dome, at least for ‘27,” Guetlein said. “Both sides of the aisle, as well as the House and the Senate, are working through the math about how do you do this in ‘27. I will tell you that if they don’t figure it out, there is no Golden Dome because there is no funding.”

For now, the reconciliation process is stalled in Congress. The House approved a slimmed down $60 billion version of the White House’s proposal in July. It’s possible some Pentagon priorities initially included in reconciliation could be funded through a separate $67 billion Iran war supplemental, though that proposal is also in limbo. 

Meanwhile, the prospects of passing a standard appropriations bill by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 have also dimmed. The House and Senate have passed separate versions of a continuing resolution that would provide stopgap funding to avoid a government shutdown. Guetlein noted that the continuing resolution—which freezes funding at the prior year’s levels—doesn’t provide relief for Golden Dome. 

“A CR doesn’t help me under Golden Dome because I don’t have a top line to fall back to to get that percentage of the continuing resolution,” he said.

Speaking with reporters after his speech, Guetlein said the department is discussing contingency plans should reconciliation fail. One option is for the military services to take over funding some elements of the Golden Dome architecture. He pointed to the Space Force as an example, which has already invested heavily in Golden Dome-enabling capabilities like the Space Data Network and space-based missile warning and tracking satellites. 

“Several of the space capabilities that we are investing in are also being invested in by the Space Force,” he said. “So, if Golden Dome is not able to continue to invest in those type of capabilities, then the Space Force could decide at that time to continue the investments.”

He added: “Because we have diversified execution of a lot of these capabilities, and a lot of these capabilities are already requested by combatant commands, there are some alternatives that we can pursue. We have not made any decisions on any pathway.”

Guetlein said he’s hopeful the department and Congress will find a way to fund the program in ‘27 given the urgency around bolstering U.S. defenses against missile threats and the capabilities he says the team has already proven. 

During his speech, Guetlein highlighted recent milestones, which include breaking ground on the Golden Dome’s first operational site at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story, Va., and a major test event it conducted in June at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Of note, Guetlein told reporters the Pentagon’s independent Director of Operational Test & Evaluation did not oversee the test; instead a “separate entity” is charged with leading validation efforts in close coordination with DOT&E.

Guetlein also reported progress on one of Golden Dome’s more ambitious technical lifts—demonstrating the integration of space-based interceptors to defeat missile threats at various phases of flight. The Space Force is leading a prize competition among 12 companies to incrementally showcase SBI capabilities with the goal of an initial capability by 2028. 

Contractors have completed the first of those increments, dubbed Gate One, which focused on solidifying a design and conducting component-level testing. Guetlein said it appears all of the providers will move to Gate Two, where they will build a prototype. Those that progress to Gate Three must prove the capability works in space and then the Gate Four providers must show their interceptors can be integrated with the broader Golden Dome architecture.

“We have not put in any operational requests for production capabilities until after they prove through the prize-based competition that those capabilities are effective, but more importantly, that they’re scalable and affordable,” he said. “At that point, we will then make a decision if we are going to move into production or not.”