Senior Defense Department officials met with the Senate Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee in Washington, May 13, 2025, to discuss Golden Dome, a next-generation missile defense shield aimed at protecting the U.S. from evolving aerial threats.
The initiative, created by an executive order from President Donald J. Trump, Jan. 27, 2025, was announced amid rising concerns over sophisticated missile threats from adversaries such as China and Russia. A Defense Intelligence Agency report released earlier this month warned that these threats are expanding.
Unlike traditional intercontinental ballistic missiles, new systems such as cruise missiles and maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles challenge current U.S. defenses. Golden Dome would include a layered network, combining sensors, interceptors, and command and control technologies to counter them.
Inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, officials acknowledged that Golden Dome is an ambitious undertaking and would require scaling the Iron Dome concept to a national level.
Andrea Yaffe, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said the system will integrate both kinetic and non-kinetic missile defeat capabilities and advanced command, control and battle management systems to augment existing U.S. missile defense capabilities.
She emphasized that the president's directive was driven by the recognition that the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks remains the most "catastrophic threat facing the United States."
With multiple organizations across the department providing input and assistance, a panel of military leaders from throughout the space and air defense enterprises joined Yaffe at the hearing to explain how their commands align with Golden Dome.
Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said both of his commands have provided input on layered approaches to detect and destroy incoming missile threats. His focus is on integrating existing early warning systems with new technologies to give Golden Dome a comprehensive picture of any threat headed toward the United States.
Guillot emphasized the need for layered domain awareness — from seabed to space — to track threats approaching North America, noting that sensor and tracking capabilities are central to NORAD and Northcom's mission, and will be critical for the Golden Dome shield.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath A. Collins, director of the Missile Defense Agency, highlighted MDA's decades of experience developing the nation's missile defense architecture. The agency has spent more than 40 years fielding and networking systems like ground-based interceptors and sensors, and it will play a key role in assembling the Golden Dome system.
"We're at the core of helping support and inform [DOD] in putting together an architecture that's comprehensive, that covers all pieces and parts, and [that can] be executed," Collins told the committee.
He said MDA is working closely with the commands to ensure that existing missile defense elements — such as interceptor missiles, radar satellites, and command-and-control networks — can be unified under Golden Dome's framework.
Sen. Deb Fischer, who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee's subcommittee overseeing strategic forces, called Golden Dome a "generational leap" in defense but warned it depends on continued access to critical assets like military spectrum bands.
She also noted that current U.S. missile defense systems — primarily ground-based interceptors based in Alaska and California — cannot adequately address some of the emerging threats, such as hypersonic glide vehicles and space-launched weapons. This broadened scope means Golden Dome must counter not only traditional ICBMs, but also advanced cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, as well as systems like fractional orbital bombardment vehicles, which could deliver warheads from space.
Retired Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, who led Northcom and NORAD until earlier this year, estimated that developing and deploying the space-based sensor and interceptor layer could take five to 10 years.
Golden Dome will incorporate multiple layers of defense — from ground-based interceptors and fighter jet defenses to ship-borne and space-based systems — under one unified command and control system. Because of the complexity, defense leaders agree that building such a comprehensive shield will not happen overnight.
In the meantime, the Pentagon is moving to integrate what capabilities it can.