Trump’s golden dome digs the Silicon Valley against the Defense Giants

The Donald Dome missile from the Donald Trump missed a pressure battle between Silicon Valley and the largest defense groups in America, where they are fighting for a segment of an ambitious project of $ 175 billion.

The Trump administration’s explicit invitation to “unconventional” contractors has launched a competitiveness to establish the experimental defense system, which led to the establishment of giants established such as Lockheed Martin and Northop Grumman with technical groups trying to claim a greater share of the Pentagon boxes.

Since the battle is likely to attract technology leaders from Peter Thil to Elon Musk, the question is whether the Silicon Valley really has the defense segments of the muscle in a decades -old military industrial complex.

“I appreciate some aggression and entrepreneurship in some of these emerging entities,” said John Clark, head of the Technology and Strategic Innovation Department of Lockheed Martin, one of the large defense companies that helped in the Silicon Valley seed decades ago.

Clark added: “We would like to move as soon as possible, but at the end of the day, we need to make sure that these things are working.”

Politics suddenly more complicated. Spacex – Indeed, among the largest technology companies operating in the Pentagon – is scheduled to be a great beneficiary of the project, but its role can be a question after the public. A dispute between musk and Trump.

But it is expected that dozens of other technological groups, including Microsoft and Peter Thiel, are expected to provide data intelligence, as well as all large old defense contractors.

The missile defense agency plans to grant 10 -year contracts with a total of $ 151 billion in an open and competitive process, so there will be a lot of money for the newer and big players. The agency has received more than 500 responses to its request for information.

Robert Fleming, head of the space department in the group, said, adding that the company expects to participate in each class of the project, that last week the executives of Northvrom Grouman held a comprehensive meeting on the golden dome, which they see as “transformative” for the industry.

The stadium by companies such as Northop and Lockheed is their record in providing installed and ready -made techniques for the scale of the size that Trump demands.

Golden Dome, inspired by the “Iron Dome” of Israel, aims to create a space -based missile shield to protect the United States from advanced missile threats from countries such as Russia and China.

The system will include sensors capable of capturing the entire world in actual time, space -based objections such as “non -kinetic” lasers that can destroy seconds before launch, and childish artificial intelligence models that can analyze complex data groups.

While the project aims to provide protection against new generations of ballistic missiles and hyperactivity, critics argue that they are unnecessary, expensive and risk that lead to arms race. The main elements of technology are still under development or not installed in the conflict.

The startups in the field of defense technology in number and financing have exploded in recent years, as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as geopolitical tensions between the United States and China have emphasized the importance of modern technologies for national security.

Pentagon Trump sees these companies as “vital to forming the future of missile defense”, partly due to the rapid development of Amnesty International as well as the speed of commercial technological innovation and low costs for traditional defense players.

But old companies still dominate the sector and have greater experience in making weapons and technology used in the fighting. Fleming from Northop emphasized the importance of distinguishing between “capabilities” and “aspirations”.

Edward Abu, Vice President of C3 AI and a chief technology employee, said the golden dome will need both devices and programs that “require the integration of data, the gym and widespread prediction.”

“The tide is changing quickly,” said ABBO. “Now we see the government actually prefer commercial programs outside the cliff.”

Musk’s Spacex and Thiel’s Palantir has been working with the United States government for nearly two decades. But they are now facing competition from new participants including Anduil, C3 AI, EPIRUS, Saronic, Scaleai, Sheleldai and True Anomaly, all of which have achieved reviews of more than one billion dollars.

Mike Brown, the former director of the Defense Innovation Unit in the Pentagon and the current partner at Capital Cheldal Capital, said the administration was “turbocharged how the United States buys commercial technology.”

Consumer technology companies such as Microsoft, Google and Openai have photographed Cloud and AI programs to defend the United States.

A person close to the defense industry said: “I am not thinking about this matter about the extent of the initial numbers of the amount of what these non -appreciation gets. How much this is not appreciated to catch up with the initial numbers,” said a person close to the defense industry.

The person who adds added that the decisive question is whether the golden dome provides a “critical pumping” necessary to develop its capabilities to manufacture and engineering as well as their understanding of the war.

While old defense players also develop an innovative technology, their stadiums focus on their current capabilities and production and delivery records – even if they are often suffering from delay.

To create multiple complex layers of technology and weapons systems required for the project, the Pentagon will need contractors and old technical groups.

“The truth is that we need some extent.

Michael Ohanklon, director of the Strub Talbot Center for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Brookings Institute, said that the Silicon Valley types “will be very good in the battle management program” and may be involved in sensors networks like Starlink.

But O’Hanlon has expressed doubt that defense technology companies have capabilities to build larger weapons such as Interceptor. He said: “This differs from building a smaller robots and drones, and requires more resources allocated to preliminary models and development.”

Fellang from Northwar said that the firm systems of the company that struck the missiles before its launch, “decisive”, as well as the satellites around the next generation, which could be a major part of the Golden Dome Golden Missile Warning System. The group also has many proposals and “proven capabilities” for space -based objections, despite their classification.

Likewise, Lockheed began discussions with the Pentagon immediately after Trump’s executive order in January calling for the construction of the golden dome.

In the stadiums to the Ministry of Defense, Lockheed highlighted the THAAD and PAC-3, and its long-term radar to protect against ballistic missile attacks, wild radar wallets, satellites Liu its planet, and objection of the next generation that is already working on it.

Clark, Vice President of Lockheed, said he was also putting what he was saying is his unique ability to integrate each company and programs, which will be one of the biggest challenges in the project.

Lockheed told government officials that the golden dome will include “an attempt to hit a bullet with a bullet” – a message that emphasizes the complexity of the project.

Investors poured more than $ 150 billion in defense startups since 2021, with a dramatic increase from five years before that, according to the stadium’s book. However, there have been a few signs so far that new participants have carved a large part of the US defense budgets, which are spent by an overwhelming majority on old contractors such as Lockheed and Nortrub.

Spacex contains Pentagon contracts worth $ 12.4 billion, and Palantir is $ 3.6 billion of contracts – in addition to more than $ 50 billion in the sub -contract – and the total Anduril contracts is about $ 2 billion, according to the data provider. SPACEX also received a $ 5.9 billion nautical launch contract in April.

Benjen said that all defense technology companies want to “become prominent” and there will always be another emerging “waiting for the wings to remove them.

“Spacex move from (A) start a running to the dominant space launch provider … and there are others who may want to cancel it.”