Washington’s Bureaucratic Machine Could Chew Up Trump’s Golden Dome Dreams

Washington’s byzantine bureaucracy could be the ultimate roadblock to President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome project, several defense experts told Axios on Wednesday.

The Golden Dome project, a massive defense project intended to defend the mainland U.S. from incoming missiles, is projected to cost at least $175 billion and require help from a number of top defense contractors to quickly build in just three years. However, the defense industrial complex is known for its complexity and slow-moving nature, and Trump’s flagship defense project will likely have to overcome a brick wall of red tape and slow-moving offices, experts told Axios.

“I think there’s been a lot of discussion about the capability … and there’s been little discussion about the organization and the authorities to get stuff done,” Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Axios.

In order to complete the project, numerous offices and entities within the federal government will have to sign off on all proposals related to the project, a reality that could cause problems for Trump’s ambitious three-year timeline, according to Axios.

The Golden Dome — which has drawn comparisons to the Israeli ‘Iron Dome‘ missile defense system — is envisioned to utilize ground, sea and space-based applications to intercept missiles targeting the American homeland. So far, L3 Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies and Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been floated