Elon Musk's company the 'frontrunner' to build widely criticized Trump project: report

President Donald Trump's determination to build a nationwide missile shield on par with the Iron Dome in Israel may be about to become even more controversial.

Reuters reports that Elon Musk's SpaceX, along with software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril, have emerged as the "frontrunners" to build Trump's "Golden Dome" missile shield that has been widely criticized by defense experts as a costly and unnecessary proposal.

According to Reuters' sources, the three companies are pitching a plan to "build and launch 400 to more than 1,000 satellites circling the globe to sense missiles and track their movement" and to also build "a separate fleet of 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers would then bring enemy missiles down."

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However, the plan includes one highly unusual clause that could give Pentagon officials pause: SpaceX is pitching its missile dome system as a subscription service in which the government would pay for access to it, which means that the United States would not actually own the infrastructure being put in place.

Reuters notes that "all three companies were founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump," including most prominently Musk, who spent hundreds of billions of dollars to get the president elected.

Critics have claimed that building such a system would cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and have questioned its necessity given that no foreign country has ever launched missile attacks against the United States.