Overview
- Most of the roughly $25 billion Congress appropriated last summer remains unspent while officials finalize the program's space-based architecture.
- Internal debate over on-orbit capabilities, including potential anti-satellite functions, is a central holdup in defining the classified design.
- The Pentagon says foundational elements are in place, but broader procurement awaits decisions that could trigger the release of significant funds.
- The Space Force issued a handful of small prototype awards in November to firms including Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Anduril and True Anomaly, each worth about $120,000.
- Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev denounced the initiative as provocative, and President Trump has tied it to Greenland even as a U.S. official said the island is not in the proposed architecture; Trump has projected a $175 billion total cost and completion by the end of his term.