Golden Dome Czar Charts Two-Year Plan Focused on Command and Control, Interceptors

The Pentagon’s Golden Dome Director said Jan. 23 his top priorities for the advanced homeland missile defense shield over the next two years are establishing a baseline command-and-control capability and integrating interceptors into that system. 

The vision for Golden Dome—initially cast by President Donald Trump’s administration in the early days of his second term—is a sprawling network of sensors, satellites, and interceptors designed to protect the United States from missile threats. In a speech at Space Systems Command’s Industry Days Conference in Los Angeles, Calif., Golden Dome Director Gen. Michael Guetlein offered new insight into how the program hopes to make progress toward delivering on that vision in the next few years, with the goal of demonstrating an initial capability by 2028 and an “objective architecture” by 2035.

First on the list is to develop an integrated command-and-control system by this summer. Guetlein described the system as a “glue layer” that will connect all of the tactical C2 capabilities that will contribute to Golden Dome. Since July, Guetlein’s team has been working with a consortium of six companies to integrate new and existing C2 capabilities into that system.

“Those six partners, and they are partners, are working together and holding each other accountable through peer pressure to deliver what they said they’re going to deliver on the timeline they said they’re going to deliver,” he said. “We have to have that delivered this summer and demonstrate the C2 capability in front of the president.”

In 2027, the program’s focus will shift toward integrating interceptors into that architecture, a task Guetlein hopes to achieve by that summer. It’s not clear how many or what types of interceptors will be part of that initial effort. The Space Force is working with industry to prototype space-based interceptors that can take out enemy missiles in the boost and midcourse phases of flight. In late November, the service awarded contracts to 18 companies for boost-phase interceptor designs. 

Security Concerns

As Guetlein and his team—which now consists of 52 personnel but will soon grow to 100—get after the program’s technical goals, they’ve also been managing a barrage of security threats since the program’s inception.

Those threats started in July, just after Guetlein was confirmed to lead the office, he said. 

“I was confirmed July 18,” Guetlein said. “On the 20th of July, they started hacking our defense industrial base.”

Guetlein didn’t expand on the sources or scope of the “hacking” but said it raised enough concern that Pentagon leadership directed the program to “go silent.” 

That silence about a program that’s expected to cost $175 billion over the next three years—and much more beyond that—has drawn scrutiny from the public, members of Congress, and some in industry. Defense appropriators, in their draft of defense spending legislation released Jan. 20, called for more insight into the program’s budget.

Guetlein acknowledged the program’s secrecy and defended it—saying that the threats from adversaries demand the Pentagon protect information about the program. 

“We have been quiet,” he said. “I’ve not been talking to industry consortiums. I’ve not been talking to the press. I’ve not been talking to the think tanks. And it wasn’t until September I was allowed to even start talking to the Hill. That is why we’re not talking much, because we need to preserve this capability to defend this nation from our adversaries.”

Because of the threat, Guetlein has been limited to classified briefings on the Golden Dome architecture, meeting one-on-one with members of industry. To date, he’s briefed more than 350 firms, including all of the major defense primes. Asked when the program would have another industry day—the first and only was held in August—Guetlein said it’s not likely to happen in the near term. The program became “too exposed” after its first industry day, he said, possibly referring to briefing slides that leaked within days of the event. 

To give more companies access to contracting opportunities, particularly small businesses, the program plans to establish an industry touchpoint, similar to Space Systems Command’s Front Door, that companies can use to engage with program officials and address concerns about security vulnerabilities. That should be active by next month, Guetlein said. 

“The approach we are taking on security with our industry partners is very collaborative,” he said. “I have a team that is focused on working directly with you to talk to you about your vulnerability points and how you might be able to fill them, trying to let you know what could be happening to you—and in some cases, what is happening to you—and then working collaboratively with you to close those.”