At a Senate hearing on May 13, Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch discussed the cost of installing a small-scale “Golden Dome” defense system on Guam — estimated at $8 billion.
Guam’s population is about 779,000, much smaller than many US cities.
Senator Angus King of Maine used this figure to estimate what a similar system covering all US cities with populations equal or larger than Guam’s would cost.
Arriving at a staggering $6.2 trillion — roughly 35 times Trump’s original estimate. However, this is a rough extrapolation and the final system will not simply be a scaled-up version of Guam’s defense.
Other Estimates
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The Hill calculated a more moderate estimate of $119 billion by comparing Guam’s area in square miles to the entire US territory.
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that just the space-based elements of the program could cost as much as $542 billion over 20 years.
