Golden Dome missile shield could top $1.2T, budget watchdog says

A Congressional Budget Office estimate says the proposed “Golden Dome” missile-defense program could cost about $1.2 trillion over 20 years versus the $185 billion figure cited by Pentagon leaders. The much-larger CBO estimate implies multi‑decade procurement, R&D and production work that could materially benefit major defense contractors and related suppliers, supporting sector revenue and potentially lifting defense-heavy segments of the US SP 500. The CBO also flagged limits to the system’s effectiveness against large-scale, sophisticated attacks, leaving technical and strategic uncertainty that could temper investor enthusiasm. Market implications center on bigger long-term contract pipelines for primes (supportive) and heightened fiscal scrutiny/uncertainty (potentially constraining broader sentiment).