![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/HBTSS-Kill-Chain.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
This illustration shows how the Missile Defense Agency\u2019s HBTSS satellites can track hypersonic missiles as they glide and maneuver through the atmosphere, evading detection by conventional missile-tracking spacecraft, such as the Space Force\u2019s DSP and SBIRS satellites.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n Northrop Grumman<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
The good news for backers of the Golden Dome program is that the Pentagon and commercial industry were developing most of these elements before Trump\u2019s executive order. The Space Development Agency (SDA) launched a batch of prototype missile-tracking and data-relay satellites in 2023, pathfinders for a constellation of hundreds of spacecraft in low-Earth orbit that will begin launching later this year.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
In some cases, the military has already fielded Golden Dome components in combat. The Army has operated the Patriot missile system since the 1980s and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors for more than 15 years to defend against lower-level threats like small rockets, aircraft, and drones. The Navy\u2019s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System uses sea-launched interceptors to target longer-range missiles in space.<\/p>\n
The Missile Defense Agency manages the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program, which consists of operational silo-launched missile interceptors based in Alaska and California that could be used to defend against a limited missile strike from a rogue state like North Korea.<\/p>\n
GMD has cost approximately $70 billion to date and has worked a little more than half the time the military has tested it against a missile target. On the plus side, GMD has achieved four straight successful intercepts in tests since 2014. But despite its immense cost, GMD is antiquated and would not be effective against a large volley of missiles coming from another nuclear superpower, like China.<\/p>\n
Golden Dome will bring all of these systems together, and add more to the mix in order to \u201cdouble down on the protection of the homeland and protect our American citizens,\u201d Guetlein said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n
Guetlein identified several short-term priorities for what is officially called the \u201cOffice of Golden Dome for America.\u201d One of them is to begin bringing together the military\u2019s existing missile detection and tracking assets, ground- and sea-based interceptors, and the communication pathways, or \u201ccomm pipes,\u201d to connect all the pieces in a sophisticated command-and-control network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat includes the sensors, that includes the shooters, as well as the comm pipes,\u201d Guetlein said. \u201cHow do we bring all that to bear simultaneously in protection of the homeland, while utilizing the capabilities that are already there and not trying to re-create them?\u201d<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
The Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday that Guetlein\u2019s office will devise an \u201cobjective architecture\u201d for the missile defense shield and \u201csocialize\u201d it by late September. This presumably means sharing some information about the architecture with Congress and the public. So far, Space Force officials have hesitated to provide any specifics, at least in public statements and congressional hearings. They often prefer to describe Golden Dome as a \u201csystem of systems\u201d instead of something entirely new.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, I\u2019ve been given 60 days to come up with the objective architecture. I owe that back to the Deputy Secretary of Defense in 60 days,\u201d Guetlein said. \u201cSo, in 60 days, I\u2019ll be able to talk in depth about, \u2018Hey, this is our vision for what we want to get after for Golden Dome.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the major pieces of a layered anti-missile system like Golden Dome may appear obvious to anyone with a casual familiarity with missile defense and space\u2014we just named a few of these elements above\u2014the Trump administration has not published any document describing what the Pentagon might actually achieve in the next three years.<\/p>\n
Despite the lack of detail, Congress voted to approve $25 billion as a down payment for Golden Dome in the Trump-backed \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d signed into law July 4. The bulk of the Golden Dome-related budget is earmarked for procurement of more Patriot and THAAD missile batteries, an increase in funding for SDA\u2019s missile-tracking satellites, ballistic missile defense command-and-control networks, and development of \u201clong-range kill chains\u201d for combat targeting.<\/p>\n Two of the US Army\u2019s THAAD missile batteries are seen deployed in Israel in this 2019 photo.<\/p>\n Credit: So, most of the funding allocated to Golden Dome over the next year will go toward bolstering programs already in the Pentagon\u2019s portfolio. But the military will tie them all together with an integrated command-and-control system that can sense an adversarial missile launch, plot its trajectory, and then generate a targeting solution and send it to an interceptor on the ground or in space to eliminate the threat.<\/p>\n Eventually, military leaders want satellites to handle all of these tasks autonomously in space and do it fast enough for US or allied forces to respond to an imminent threat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know how to get data,\u201d a retired senior military official recently told Ars. \u201cThe question is, how do you fuse that data in real time with the characteristics of a fire control system, which means real-time feedback of all this data, filtering that data, filtering out sensors that aren\u2019t helping as much as other ones, and then using that to actually command and control against a large-scale attack of diverse threats.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like those are still two different things,\u201d said the official, who spoke on background with Ars. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to have all the data and be able to process it. It\u2019s another thing to be able to put it into an active, real-time fire control system.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump introduced Guetlein, the Space Force\u2019s former vice chief of space operations, as his nominee for director of the Golden Dome program in an Oval Office event on May 20. At the time, Trump announced the government had \u201cofficially selected an architecture\u201d for Golden Dome. That appears to still be the work in front of Guetlein and his team, which is set to grow with new hiring but will remain \u201csmall and flat,\u201d the general said Tuesday.<\/p>\n Guetlein has a compelling r\u00e9sum\u00e9 to lead Golden Dome. Before becoming the second-ranking officer in the Space Force, he served as head of Space Systems Command, which is responsible for most of the service\u2019s acquisition and procurement activities. His prior assignments included stints as deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, program executive at the Missile Defense Agency, program manager for the military\u2019s missile warning satellites, and corporate fellow at SpaceX.<\/p>\n Guetlein identified command and control and the development of space-based interceptors as two of the most pressing technical challenges for Golden Dome. He believes the command-and-control problem can be \u201covercome in pretty short order.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think the real technical challenge will be building the space-based interceptor,\u201d Guetlein said. \u201cThat technology exists. I believe we have proven every element of the physics that we can make it work. What we have not proven is, first, can I do it economically, and then second, can I do it at scale? Can I build enough satellites to get after the threat? Can I expand the industrial base fast enough to build those satellites? Do I have enough raw materials, etc.?\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n This is the challenge that ultimately killed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or \u201cStar Wars\u201d program proposed by former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as a way to counter the threat of a nuclear missile attack from the Soviet Union. The first concept for SDI called for 10,000 interceptors to be launched into Earth orbit. This was pared down to 4,600, then finally to fewer than 1,000 before the cancellation of the space-based element in 1993.<\/p>\n Thirty years ago, the United States lacked the technology and industrial capacity to build and launch so many satellites. It\u2019s a different story today. SpaceX has launched more than 9,000 Starlink communications satellites in six years, and Amazon recently kicked off the deployment of more than 3,200 Internet satellites of its own.<\/p>\n Space-based interceptors are a key tenet of Trump\u2019s executive order on Golden Dome. Specifically, the order calls for space-based interceptors capable of striking a ballistic missile during its boost phase shortly after launch. These interceptors would essentially be small satellites positioned in low-Earth orbit, likely a few hundred miles above the planet, circling the world every 90 minutes ready for commands to prevent nuclear Armageddon.<\/p>\n A Standard Missile 3 Block IIA launches from the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, on December 10, 2018, during a test to intercept an intermediate-range ballistic missile target in space.<\/p>\n Credit: Reuters reported Tuesday that the Defense Department, which reportedly favored SpaceX to play a central role in Golden Dome, is now looking to other companies, including Amazon Kuiper and other big defense contractors. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has fallen out of favor with the Trump administration, but the company\u2019s production line continues to churn out spacecraft for the National Reconnaissance Office\u2019s global constellation of spy satellites. And it\u2019s clear the cheapest and most reliable way to launch Golden Dome interceptors into orbit will be using SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n \u201cI would envision that there would be certainly more than 1,000 of those in orbit in different orbital planes,\u201d said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry \u201cTrey\u201d Obering III, a senior executive advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton and former director of the Missile Defense Agency. \u201cYou could optimize those orbital planes against the Russian threat or Chinese threat, or both, or all the above, between Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n In an interview with Ars, Obering suggested the interceptors could be modest in size and mass, somewhat smaller than SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellites, and could launch 100 or 200 at a time on a rocket like SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9. None of this capability existed in the Reagan era.<\/p>\n Taking all of that into account, it\u2019s understandable why Guetlein and others believe Golden Dome is doable.<\/p>\n But major questions remain unanswered about its ultimate cost and the realism of Trump\u2019s three-year schedule. Some former defense officials have questioned the technical viability of using space-based interceptors to target a missile during its boost phase, within the first few minutes of launch.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that there are also real emerging threats, such as hypersonic missiles and drones, that the US military is currently ill-equipped to defend against.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strategic threats are diversifying, and then the actors are diversifying,\u201d the former military space official told Ars. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer just Russia. It\u2019s China now, and to a lesser extent, North Korea and potentially Iran. We\u2019ll see where that goes. So, when you put that all together, our ability to deter and convince a potential adversary, or at least make them really uncertain about how successful they could be with a strike, is degraded compared to what it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n The official said the Trump administration teed up the Golden Dome executive order without adequately explaining the reasons for it. That\u2019s a political failing that could come back to bite the program. The lack of clarity didn\u2019t stop Congress from approving this year\u2019s $25 billion down payment, but there are more key decision points ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a little disappointed no one\u2019s really defined the problem very well,\u201d the retired military official said. \u201cIt definitely started out as a solution without a problem statement, like, \u2018I need an Iron Dome, just like Israel.\u2019 But I feel like the entire effort would benefit from a better problem statement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The newly installed head of the Pentagon\u2019s Golden Dome missile defense shield, a monumental undertaking projected to cost $175 billion over the next three years, knows the clock is ticking to show President Donald Trump some results before the end of his term in the White House. \u201cWe are going to try to craft a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/thaad_israel.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n US Army\/Staff Sgt. Cory Payne<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nWeapons in space<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/181210-D-ZZ999-005C-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Mark Wright\/DOD<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nHow many space-based interceptors?<\/h2>\n