The Four Most Intriguing Golden Dome Business Opportunities

The Golden Dome proposed homeland missile defense system is the most highly anticipated Department of Defense business opportunity in decades. An independent estimate has the program costing at least $252 billion over a 20-year timeframe and the White House has already put down a $25 billion down payment to get the program started.

Missile defense efforts are unique among DOD business opportunities and are especially attractive to both large and small GovCons. As DOD is pushing the limits of technology with missile defense programs, they have special acquisition authorities that provide contracting officers with the speed and flexibility to get capabilities to warfighters faster.

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Golden Dome is also attractive for its visibility and priority, in addition to its massive budget. The program is a flagship effort championed by President Trump and involves advanced technology applied to some of DOD’s hardest problems, which is attractive to many firms.

Potomac Officers Club sat down with two leading experts in missile defense—Trey Obering, Booz Allen executive vice president and former Missile Defense Agency director, and Todd Harrison, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow—to discuss the juiciest contracting availabilities for GovCons in Golden Dome.

What Are Some Golden Dome Business Opportunities?

1. Interceptors

Harrison told us DOD is looking for innovation in interceptors and missiles because current systems, such as Patriot Advanced Capability-3, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, while capable, are too expensive and difficult to manufacture at scale. Specifically, the cost-per-round and production rate of modern interceptors wouldn’t scale properly for a comprehensive homeland missile defense system like Golden Dome.

Harrison believes interceptors are a great opportunity for smaller GovCons. This is one technology, he said, where traditional prime contractors have offered solid solutions, but not always the ones that DOD needs.

Small and non-traditional companies can help rethink these problems—how to make systems that work at scale and at lower cost—Todd Harrison

Many startups are entering solid rocket motor manufacturing, a big cost component for interceptors. Once dominated by a duopoly, Northrop Grumman and L3Harris, companies like Ursa Major and Anduril are competing in the solid rocket motor market.

Anduril in 2023 acquired solid rocket motor developer Adranos. Anduril now has more than 450 acres of production facilities and can produce thousands of motors per year. Meanwhile, L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne division formally opened a new solid rocket motor plant in Huntsville, Alabama, in August.

Harrison said, beyond motors, there’s opportunity in sensors, data processing, flight control systems and structures.

2. Large Unmanned Aircraft

GovCons can expect lots of money to be made available in Golden Dome for high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles similarly sized to the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk. Harrison said this class of UAVs make perfect sense for the airborne sensing layer in Golden Dome as they can stay airborne for days, loiter for long periods and operate more cheaply compared to traditional manned aircraft.

The Global Hawk has a range of 12,300 n miles, a ceiling of 60,000 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 32,250 lbs. Harrison said UAVs similarly sized to the Global Hawk can provide additional aerial coverage in times of crisis or when a threat is detected. They could monitor ships, aircraft or small UAV activity from above to improve situational awareness for Golden Dome operators.

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3. High-Energy Lasers

High-energy lasers are an architectural element of Golden Dome that requires mid- and long-term work. Obering said while DOD has some capability with this technology, more R&D is needed, especially for aircraft or spacecraft applications.

These high-energy lasers are designed to be used against UAVs, mortars, rockets and cruise missiles. They require power levels as high as 300 kW, depending on the threat. But lasers must have much greater power, around 1 MW, to be effective in Golden Dome, according to Real Clear Defense.

DOD will likely leverage broad agency announcements to rapidly advance capability in high-energy lasers. Obering expects the Pentagon to also use non-Federal Acquisition Regulation-based other transaction authority contracts and more expansive use of large-scale indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards as part of its overarching Golden Dome acquisition strategy.

4. Space-Based Capabilities

Obering said space-related capabilities are great business opportunities for GovCons, especially smaller ones. Golden Dome, he said, envisions space-based interceptors capable of some level of boost phase defense. This will require at least 1,000 satellites and more likely around 2,000.

As Golden Dome plans to leverage such a large amount of satellites, DOD will need to leverage AI to command and control such an unprecedented constellation. Many smaller firms, and even Booz Allen, excel here, he said.

Obering expects DOD to allocate a large share of funding as it lacks operational satellites on orbit providing Golden Dome’s required precise intercept tracking quality. The Pentagon already has plenty of terrestrial sensors and interceptors, both land- and sea-based, and both mobile and fixed.

Additionally, innovation in mass production will enable DOD to reach the number of satellites required to perform space-based intercept, either just outside the atmosphere or in midcourse. Obering said innovation in mass production will drive down costs and strengthen the industrial base.

The U.S. has made a lot of progress in mass production for space-based technologies. 

“If you said 10-to-12 years ago that we’d put up 2,000-to-3,000 satellites quickly, people would have said ‘no way,’’ Obering said. “SpaceX has launched over 7,300 satellites in under five years.”

Will Golden Dome Stop Hypersonic Missiles?

Golden Dome is being designed to stop hypersonic missiles. President Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order announcing Golden Dome specifically requires the system, at a minimum, to be able to defend against hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and cutting-edge aerial attacks. It also requires the development of the hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor layer to be accelerated.

To assemble an advanced missile defense architecture, DOD has to update its supporting infrastructure and missile ranges to confirm those capabilities. Overland facilities such as White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, which will feature some Golden Dome testing, could contribute to this, according to Defense News.