Pentagon considers leasing part of Camp Pendleton to help fund Golden Dome missile defense system

Parts of the Marine base in southern California, most of which is undeveloped, could be offered up for commercial lease, sources said.

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.