The nonpartisan budget office said in a report released Tuesday that the projection reflected “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal,” citing limited details from the Pentagon regarding the scale and design of the system.

Trump ordered development of the futuristic missile shield during his first week back in office through an executive order calling for a comprehensive defense network capable of countering advanced missile threats from rival powers.

“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex,” Trump said in the order, referring to evolving missile technologies developed by U.S. adversaries.

The proposed system is envisioned as a multilayered defense architecture combining ground-based and space-based technologies designed to detect, track and intercept missiles during multiple phases of flight.
The initiative draws comparisons to Iron Dome, Israel’s missile defense network that has played a central role in intercepting rockets and missiles during regional conflicts. However, analysts note the U.S. project would operate on a vastly larger geographic and technological scale.

According to the CBO report, uncertainty surrounding the number and type of systems to be deployed makes precise long-term cost forecasting difficult. Last year, the agency estimated that space-based elements alone could require up to $542 billion over 20 years.

Congress has already approved approximately $24 billion for the initiative through a broader Republican-backed tax and spending package enacted last summer.

Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the U.S. Space Force officer overseeing the Golden Dome project, defended the program’s financial outlook during congressional testimony last month, arguing that outside estimates relied too heavily on legacy defense procurement models.

“That is not what Golden Dome is doing,” Guetlein told lawmakers. “We are laser focused on affordability.”
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who requested the CBO assessment, criticized the scale of the projected expenditure, describing the missile shield initiative as a costly expansion of defense contracting.

The report is likely to intensify debate in Congress over military spending priorities as the administration pushes forward with one of the most ambitious missile defense proposals since the Cold War-era Strategic Defense Initiative.

Regional authorities said two people were killed in a drone strike on an apartment building in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while four others died in an aerial bomb attack elsewhere in the region.

Officials said four people were wounded in the Kryvyi Rih strike, including a nine-month-old child whose leg was severed in the blast, according to regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha and military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.Zelensky condemned the attacks in a statement posted on Telegram, describing them as “cynical and devoid of all military logic.”

“After the end of the partial three-day ceasefire, Russia continues to kill and maim Ukrainians,” Zelensky said, adding that international pressure on Moscow should not be reduced.

The truce, linked to commemorations marking the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, had been part of a broader U.S.-backed diplomatic effort promoted by President Donald Trump to encourage negotiations after more than four years of war.

Although both Moscow and Kyiv reported reduced large-scale aerial bombardments during the ceasefire period, each side accused the other of continued frontline shelling, drone strikes and artillery attacks.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv had proposed extending the ceasefire, but Russia instead intensified attacks targeting civilian infrastructure and energy facilities.

Ukraine’s air force said drones were intercepted across multiple regions overnight, though strikes still caused damage to apartment buildings, power infrastructure, a kindergarten and rail facilities.In Kyiv, falling debris from a downed drone sparked a fire on the roof of a 16-story residential building in the Obolon district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Authorities also reported injuries and infrastructure damage in the regions of Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kherson. In the southern Mykolaiv region, governor Vitaliy Kim said drone strikes on energy infrastructure caused localized blackouts.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had meanwhile struck gas infrastructure in Russia’s Orenburg region, more than 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, indicating Kyiv’s continued use of long-range drone operations against Russian energy assets.

The renewed attacks underscore the fragility of ceasefire efforts as diplomatic initiatives backed by Washington and European allies struggle to halt the conflict, which has increasingly evolved into a war of attrition marked by long-range missile and drone warfare.