Musk’s SpaceX set to win $2 billion satellite tv for pc cope with Pentagon, report says | EUROtoday

Elon Musk’s SpaceX appears set to win a $2 billion contract to develop satellites to be used in monitoring missiles and plane as a part of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome protection mission, based on a report.

The deliberate “air moving target indicator” system in query may finally function as many as 600 satellites as soon as it’s totally operational, The Wall Street Journal reviews. Musk’s firm has additionally been linked to 2 extra satellite tv for pc ventures, that are involved with relaying delicate communications and tracing automobiles, respectively.

Handing the contracts to SpaceX would supply a robust indication that the rift between the 2 billionaires, which exploded so publicly in early July, has been no less than partially healed, however would do little to reassure protection sector critics who’ve warned the Pentagon in opposition to relying too closely on anyone contractor for nationwide safety initiatives.

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Golden Dome, impressed by Israel’s “Iron Dome,” was introduced by Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the White House in May and can quantity to a fancy system of satellites and weaponry able to destroying incoming missiles earlier than they hit American targets.

The president promised it will be “fully operational” earlier than he leaves workplace in January 2029, able to intercepting rockets, “even if they are launched from space,” with an total price ticket of $175 billion.

However, the impartial Congressional Budget Office warned that it may value as a lot as $524 billion and take 20 years to construct, with Musk’s then-rumored involvement prompting Democrats to specific issues a few battle of curiosity this spring.

Funding for the satellite tv for pc system was put aside in Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” handed by Congress and signed into legislation in July, however the laws didn’t title a selected contractor.

Asked concerning the reported SpaceX deal, a Pentagon official instructed The Independent: “As a matter of policy, we do not provide details relating to specifics of architectural discussion or pre-decisional matters. Recognizing adversaries’ intent to exploit Golden Dome’s breakthroughs, we are rigorously protecting its strategic advantages from external access.”

The Independent has additionally reached out to the White House and SpaceX.

Although protection officers have but to announce main contract awards for Golden Dome formally, extra particulars are anticipated over the approaching weeks. Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris have all been linked to the bidding course of.

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Palantir and Lockheed have been, by the way, named among the many donors to Trump’s new White House ballroom earlier this month.

For his half, Musk has largely retreated from the political fray after his six month “side quest” in Washington led to acrimony and disagreement over the OBBB, which noticed him and Trump change ferocious private insults in public through their rival social media platforms X and Truth Social.

The president threatened to have the South African-born tycoon deported and his $48 billion in authorities contracts positioned below evaluation through the feud. At the identical time, Musk alleged that the precise purpose for Trump not releasing the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata was that he was named in them and threatened to decommission a spacecraft used to ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

Before that, Musk had donated $288 million to Trump’s 2024 election marketing campaign and based DOGE, the company tasked with lowering waste expenditure and streamlining the federal authorities.

The two have been briefly reunited and shook fingers at a memorial for the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Arizona in September, and the president mentioned earlier this week that he had “always liked Elon” and dismissed their spat as “very stupid,” hinting at a want for friendlier relations.