Musk reunites with PayPal co-founder to build Trump defence shield
Elon Musk has joined forced with Republican power broker Peter Thiel on a bid to help build Donald Trump's proposed 'Golden Dome' missile defence shield.
Mr Musk's SpaceX is partnering with Mr Thiel's Silicon Valley data company Palantir Technologies and US drone builder Anduril Industries on a joint proposal for the project.
It would involve SpaceX supplying up to 1,000 orbiters that would provide an early warning of a missile or nuclear launch against the US.
A separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers, probably from another manufacturer, would then shoot down the enemy warheads.
While Golden Dome has attracted interest from more than 180 companies, the three companies have already pitched the plan to top officials from the White House and the Pentagon, according to Reuters, which reported the story citing unnamed sources.
The situation is likely to fuel criticism that Mr Musk is profiting from his political role in the White House. He holds the title of 'special government employee' at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), the agency Mr Trump created to reduce wasteful federal spending.
US defence officials are said to be conscious of the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Musk, who donated almost $300m (£227m) to his election campaign.
Speculation has grown this month that Mr Musk may be poised to step back from his role in order to concentrate on running SpaceX and electric car pioneer Tesla.
Mr Thiel, the billionaire PayPal co-founder, is also a prominent supporter of Mr Trump and played an influential role in the rise of JD Vance, now vice president. Anduril Industries was set up by Palmer Luckey, another Trump supporter.
The president set out plans for what he called an 'Iron Dome for America' – a reference to Israel's anti-missile shield – in an executive order on Jan 27, a week after taking office.
The order stated that 'the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles and other advanced aerial attacks remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.'
Renamed Golden Dome in February, the project revives Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative of the 1980s, popularly known as 'Star Wars,' which was abandoned with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
The total bill for the Golden Dome plan could reach hundreds of billions of dollars, with preliminary design and engineering work alone costing up to $10bn.
The proposals from SpaceX would see the deployment of a constellation of between 400 and 1,000 orbiters based on the firm's existing spy satellites and deployed using its own rockets.
These would detect any missile launches worldwide, track their trajectory, and determine if they were bound for the US.
In a departure from normal procurement protocols, SpaceX is proposing a subscription model for the missile shield that would see the US government pay for access, Reuters said.
The funding plan might hasten the development and deployment of the technology, though it would raise questions about whether the Pentagon risked losing control over its ongoing development and pricing.
A contract award for SpaceX would come as a blow to traditional US defence players, though they would still expect to play a role in weaponising the attack satellites.
Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest arms producer, has set up a webpage on Golden Dome as part of its own push to secure work on the project.
It describes the initiative as a 'Manhattan Project-scale mission' – a reference to the US programme to develop the first nuclear weapons during the Second World War – best delivered by bringing commercial and defence players together in an a 'whole of industry approach.
The Pentagon said it would deliver options to Trump in line with the executive order.
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