The Defense Department is considering leasing parts of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, for commercial use, with profits potentially helping fund President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project, a current defense official and a former defense official told NBC News.
The base sprawls across more than 125,000 acres of Southern California, less than one-quarter of which is build out, including what the Marine Corps says is the “largest undeveloped portion of coastline in Southern California.”
Marines use some of the undeveloped land’s variety of terrain for training. The beaches are critical to amphibious landing training, for instance, while mountains, desert and rangeland are used in combat readiness drills.
The base, which is about 40 miles from San Diego, is home to the 1 Marine Expeditionary Force and a number of other Marine units and schools. Roughly 70,000 people are on the base most days.
The Pentagon has conducted an initial survey of the areas that could be leased for commercial use, but the officials could not say how many acres are under consideration or how long those leases would be. Various areas spread around the base would most likely be up for lease, rather than one large chunk of land, and the Pentagon is focused on areas the Marines rarely use, the officials said.
Navy Secretary John Phelan visited the base last week and viewed the areas under consideration by helicopter, the current defense official said.
Details about what companies or sectors the Pentagon envisions as potential lessees or how much money it expects to raise are unclear. The officials stressed, though, that losing the land would not affect Marine Corps training or readiness.
Asked for comment about the potential leases and how money from them would be used, a separate defense official told NBC News, “We defer you to the Navy for this query.” In a statement, Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Williams, Phelan’s public affairs officer, said Phelan’s trip to the base 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,” Williams said.
Golden Dome is Trump’s initiative to build a missile defense shield for the United States modeled on Israel’s Iron Dome. It would most likely include multiple elements, including already existing surface-to-air defenses, ships and fighter jets. But it could also involve space-based interceptors and other technology the United States would have to develop for that purpose.
The tax and spending legislation known as “the Big Beautiful Bill” provided almost $25 billion for Golden Dome. The White House has put the potential overall cost of the system at $175 billion, but some experts believe it could be much higher. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of a network of space-based interceptors alone could be $161 billion to $542 billion.
You can read the original post at NBC News.