Trump Considers Leasing Parts Of Camp Pendleton To Fund Golden Dome

The Pentagon is exploring the possibility of leasing sections of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California to commercial customers, and potentially using the proceeds to bankroll President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense scheme, NBC News was first to report on Wednesday, citing a current DOD official, as well as a former one. 

Positioned between Los Angeles and San Diego, Camp Pendleton boasts more than 125,000 acres of land and 17 miles of Pacific coastline, with Interstate 5 conveniently traversing it near the coastline. The topography is diverse, ranging from the seafront to mountainous terrain. As you’d imagine, it’s the largest undeveloped coastline expanse in all of Southern California.

Navy Secretary John Phelan toured the base last week via helicopter, looking at various sections of the base that have been preliminarily identified as potential revenue-drivers, NBC’s sources said. A Phelan spokeswoman confirmed that the trip included “initial conversations about possible commercial leasing opportunities by DoD. These opportunities are being evaluated to maximize value and taxpayer dollars while maintaining mission readiness and security. No decisions have been made and further discussions are needed,” said Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Williams. 

Many elements of the proposition are unclear, to include what type of usages are envisioned, how much land would be available, or how long any leases would be. As opposed to carving off one major section of Camp Pendleton, it’s likely that multiple, separate tracts around the installation would be offered for lease, the officials told NBC. They emphasized that the conversion of parts of Camp Pendleton to commercial use would not diminish its military use or Marine Corps readiness. 

Among many other units, Camp Pendleton is the home of the 1 Marine Expeditionary Force, which the Corps touts as its “largest warfighting Marine Air-Ground Task Force.” Ten of the installation’s service members — nine Marines and a sailor — were among the 13 killed in the 2021 suicide bombing of the Kabul airport, amid the terribly-executed if long-overdue withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. It also has many military schools, including Assault Amphibian School. There are typically 70,000 people on the installation on any given day. 

Proceeds of the commercial leases may be directed to Trump’s Golden Dome, his vision of an American missile defense shield inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome — but far exceeding it in both complexity and scale. The multi-faceted defense scheme would likely include ships, jets and surface-to-air components, with the potential for space-based interceptors as well.  

Last month, new details of Golden Dome began to emerge, based on a Reuters review of a U.S. government slide presentation on the project, titled “Go Fast, Think Big!”, which was presented to 3,000 defense contractors. According to the slides, the Golden Dome’s missile defense shield architecture calls for:

• Space layer: satellites for missile warning, tracking, and boost-phase interception.

• Upper layer: Next Generation Interceptors (NGI), THAAD, and Aegis systems — with a new missile field likely in the Midwest.

• Under layer: Patriot systems, new radars, and a common launcher for current and future interceptors.

The Big Beautiful Bill signed into law on July 4 includes $25 billion to start developing Golden Dome, and the Trump administration claims the whole thing will cost $175 billion. Having watched the history of US weapons development, we’ll take the over.