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 h

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