The best-known Golden Dome companies are the 12 firms that won 20 Space Force agreements worth up to $3.2 billion for space-based interceptor prototypes, announced April 24, 2026: SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Anduril, True Anomaly and six others. Separately, about 2,100 firms qualified in December 2025 for the Missile Defense Agency's $151 billion SHIELD contract.
This page puts the main Golden Dome awards in one table, names the startups involved, compares the cost estimates (from $175 billion to $1.2 trillion) with their sources, and explains what is and is not known. Much of the architecture is classified, and the Pentagon has not released per-company values for most awards.
What is Golden Dome?
Golden Dome is the Trump administration's homeland missile defense program. It began with Executive Order 14186, "The Iron Dome for America," signed January 27, 2025, which required an architecture including "proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept," a hypersonic and ballistic tracking sensor layer, and underlayer and terminal defenses. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein leads the program for the Department of Defense (DoD), which has also styled itself the Department of War since September 2025.
The program's goal, repeated by the Space Force when it announced the interceptor awards, is to demonstrate space-based interceptor capability integrated into the Golden Dome architecture by 2028.
Golden Dome contracts awarded: the main awards
| Award | Agency | Announced | Value | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space-based interceptor (SBI) prototypes: 20 Other Transaction agreements | Space Force, Space Systems Command | Apr 24, 2026 (agreements signed late 2025 and early 2026) | Up to $3.2B combined | 12 companies (see next table) |
| SHIELD multiple-award IDIQ, first tranche | Missile Defense Agency (MDA) | Dec 2, 2025 | $151B shared ceiling through Dec 2035; no funds obligated at award | 1,014 qualified offerors |
| SHIELD, second tranche | MDA | Dec 18, 2025 | Same $151B ceiling | 1,086 more, about 2,100 in total out of 2,463 offers |
| Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) | Space Force, Space Systems Command | May 29, 2026 | $4.16B Other Transaction agreement | SpaceX; vendor pool of nine companies formed in April 2026 |
| Space Data Network Backbone prototype | Space Force | Week of May 25, 2026 | $2.29B | SpaceX |
Two caveats. First, SHIELD is a hunting license, not revenue: the MDA told Defense News that the initial awards "are not for firm requirements," and companies are paid only when they win task orders. Golden Dome work may be competed under SHIELD, but the vehicle is not exclusive to it. Second, the sensing and data awards are Space Force programs that feed Golden Dome. The Space Systems Command release on SB-AMTI does not use the words "Golden Dome," but Reuters-based coverage describes SB-AMTI as a Golden Dome layer, and Breaking Defense groups it with Golden Dome-related lines in the FY2027 Space Force budget.
The Golden Dome 12 companies: space-based interceptor awardees
The 12 companies below share the 20 SBI agreements. The Space Force has not said which company holds how many agreements or what each is worth, and it has not said which firms are working on boost-phase versus midcourse interceptors. The list comes from Space Systems Command via Defense Daily and Via Satellite and from Bloomberg's report in Fortune.
| Company | Type | Listed? |
|---|---|---|
| Anduril Industries | Venture-backed defense startup (Costa Mesa, California) | Private |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | Defense and government consultancy | Public (NYSE: BAH) |
| General Dynamics Mission Systems | Prime contractor unit | Parent public (NYSE: GD) |
| GITAI USA | US arm of Japanese space robotics company GITAI | Parent listed in Tokyo |
| Lockheed Martin | Prime contractor | Public (NYSE: LMT) |
| Northrop Grumman | Prime contractor | Public (NYSE: NOC) |
| Quindar | Space company | Private |
| RTX (Raytheon) | Prime contractor | Public (NYSE: RTX) |
| Sci-Tec (SciTec) | Missile warning and space data software; acquired by Firefly Aerospace for $855M, closed November 2025 | Parent public (Nasdaq: FLY) |
| SpaceX | Launch and satellite company | Private |
| True Anomaly | Venture-backed space security startup (Centennial, Colorado) | Private |
| Turion Space | Venture-backed spacecraft startup (Irvine, California) | Private |
The SciTec purchase was reported by Defense Daily: $300 million in cash and $555 million in Firefly stock.
Startups in Golden Dome
Three of the SBI awardees have profiles in our directory, and all three are venture-backed companies founded after 2015:
- Anduril builds autonomous systems, air defense interceptors and the Lattice software platform.
- True Anomaly builds Jackal autonomous orbital vehicles and Mosaic mission software for space domain awareness. Its April 28, 2026 announcement of a $650 million Series D (including $50 million of debt) describes it as a prime contractor on Space Systems Command's Space-Based Interceptor program.
- Turion Space builds DROID spacecraft for rendezvous, proximity operations and space domain awareness, and announced a $75 million Series B on April 15, 2026, followed in May by a notice that it had been recognized as a space-based interceptor performer.
Quindar and GITAI USA are smaller space firms without profiles yet. Beyond the interceptor awards, the SHIELD pool of about 2,100 companies includes many small businesses, but the MDA has not published a readable public summary of the awardees, and press coverage has named mostly primes. We list startups only where an award has been confirmed. For the wider field, see our directory of space and ISR startups and defense tech companies in Colorado.
How much will Golden Dome cost?
Estimates differ by a factor of six because they cover different architectures and time frames.
| Estimate | Who | Date | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| $175B | President Trump at a White House briefing | May 2025 | Initial program cost as announced |
| $185B | Gen. Michael Guetlein, Golden Dome director | Mar 17, 2026 | The Pentagon's objective architecture; $10B added to accelerate space sensing, tracking and data transport |
| Up to $542B | Congressional Budget Office (CBO), earlier estimate | Before 2026 | Space-based interceptor constellation over 20 years |
| About $1.2T | CBO | May 12, 2026 | A notional system meeting the executive order over 20 years; $743B of it for SBIs |
| $250B to $2.4T | Todd Harrison, American Enterprise Institute | Cited Mar 2026 | Range of architectures |
The $185 billion figure came from Guetlein at the McAleese defense programs conference on March 17, 2026, and he confirmed it again in May. The CBO estimate assumes about 7,800 interceptor satellites in low Earth orbit at roughly $22 million each with a five-year life. Guetlein responded that CBO is "not estimating what we're building," while conceding that CBO's notional design is "not affordable at all." In the same interview he said: "If I cannot do something affordably and scalably, it doesn't make sense as a nation to go after it."
Golden Dome budget: FY2026 and FY2027
About $23 billion for initial Golden Dome work came through the 2025 reconciliation law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. For fiscal 2027 (FY2027), the White House requested $17.5 billion, but only about $400 million sits in the base budget; the rest depends on Congress passing another reconciliation bill. Other outlets report the total as $17.9 billion or $18 billion, a difference in how base and reconciliation lines are counted.
Some lines are large on their own. The FY2027 Space Force request includes $7.06 billion of reconciliation money for AMTI procurement and $3.56 billion for the Space Development Agency's missile tracking layer in low Earth orbit, Breaking Defense reported. As of November 14, 2026, final FY2027 appropriations and the reconciliation bill should be checked on congress.gov before relying on any line.
Golden Dome companies to invest in: what the list does and does not tell you
A common search is for "Golden Dome stocks." The listed companies in the tables above (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, General Dynamics, Booz Allen Hamilton and Firefly Aerospace) are large or diversified businesses, and Golden Dome awards are a small or undisclosed share of their revenue. The best-known startups on the list, including SpaceX, Anduril, True Anomaly and Turion Space, are private and have no ticker. Prototype agreements also do not guarantee production: Guetlein has said that if the program cannot do something affordably and at scale, it does not make sense to pursue it.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.
What to watch next
- Interceptor down-selects: the 20 SBI agreements are prototypes; watch for down-selects and the first on-orbit demonstrations before the 2028 goal.
- SHIELD task orders: the first funded orders will show which of the 2,100 firms actually get work.
- More AMTI awards: the Space Force said it expects "multiple awards in the coming year" to widen the SB-AMTI vendor pool beyond SpaceX.
- Counter-drone and lower-tier defenses: Golden Dome is about missiles, but the same bases need protection from drones; see our list of counter-drone companies in the US.
