The Trump administration’s Golden Dome for America missile defense shield will incorporate space- and land-based defenses to create a four-layered system, according to a new report. 

Defense officials presented new details on the Golden Dome project to more than 3,000 contractors in Huntsville, Alabama, in a slide show last week at the tail end of the Space & Missile Defense Symposium, Reuters reported Tuesday. 

The slides indicate Golden Dome will be composed of four defensive layers: one space-based missile targeting-and-tracking system and three land-based layers. The systems remaining on the ground will include interceptors and radar arrays. The slides also indicate that defense officials are considering deploying lasers in the layered defense system. 

The slideshow details have not been acknowledged publicly by the Pentagon, and the Defense Department declined to comment further on Golden Dome details. The Pentagon has remained tight-lipped over the program since the project was announced earlier this year. Last week, defense officials at the SMD Symposium were barred from discussing details surrounding the Golden Dome project, to the disappointment of attendees. 

In addition to revealing details on the potential structure of Golden Dome, the slides also show additions to the existing missile defense infrastructure of the U.S. One slide advocates for a new site for Next-Generation Interceptors to assist Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Agis systems in the upper-most layer of missile defense. 

The site would reportedly be located somewhere in the Midwest and could be incorporated into the U.S.’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense radar network. The U.S. currently operates two GMD systems, one in California and one in Alaska, which are used as the main missile defense system to protect the U.S. mainland from ballistic missiles. 

According to the slides, Golden Dome’s “under layer” will incorporate existing technology such as the Patriot missile defense system, alongside new radars and a new launcher to facilitate the launch of interceptors.

President Trump announced in May that the Golden Dome would be completed by the end of his term in office and would cost around $175 billion. However, Congress has only appropriated $25 billion for the project thus far. But Mr. Trump’s 2026 budget request earmarks $45.3 billion for the Golden Dome.

• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.