Lockheed Martin will conduct an on-orbit demonstration of at least one space-based interceptor design for the much-anticipated “Golden Dome” project by 2028, the company’s CEO said during a quarterly earnings call.
The Golden Dome is a proposed multi-layer missile defense system designed to detect, track, and destroy various foreign threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, as well as potentially drones or other aerial threats during different phases of flight.
It aims to create an impenetrable shield over the US and involves a constellation of satellites equipped with advanced sensors and space-based interceptors. It is intended to integrate ground, sea, air, and space-based elements for a comprehensive layered defense.
The initiative was first announced by Donald Trump in January this year, shortly after he took office as President. By May 2025, the President had announced that the selection of design for the $175-billion Golden Dome missile defense shield, adding that it should be operational by the end of his term in January 2029.
As the manufacturer of several crucial weapon systems, including air defense systems like THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Air Defense), Lockheed Martin is one of the many defense manufacturers developing systems for the Golden Dome.
“We also submitted proposals for space-based interceptors and other emerging technologies,” said Jim Taiclet, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, at the call. “We’re actually planning for a real on-orbit, space-based interceptor demonstration by 2028.”
The development of space-based interceptors is a crucial component of the broader missile shield being built to protect continental America. In fact, the executive order issued by the White House in January for the creation of a multi-layered defense shield specifically calls for the deployment of space-based interceptors to be “proliferated”—not just a small number, but enough to guarantee reliable coverage.
Current missile defense systems, both on land and at sea, are designed to combat threats in the midcourse or terminal stages, often after the warheads have split apart and countermeasures have been launched.
In contrast, space-based interceptors would be positioned in orbit to detect launches, receive fire-control orders, and respond within seconds, neutralizing missiles before they leave the hostile airspace or release additional threats or decoys to confuse the interceptor.
“It’s not just that we want space-based interceptors, we want them in [the] boost phase,” US Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of Space Operations, earlier told Defense One. “We want them to achieve their effects as far from the homeland. So they’ve got to be fast, they’ve got to be accurate.”
Integrated within a constellation of satellites equipped with advanced sensors and fire-control systems, these space-based interceptors would aim to detect, track, and destroy incoming projectiles before they reach US or allied territory. They are intended to neutralize threats in various phases of flight—boost, midcourse, and terminal—offering a proactive defense mechanism compared to traditional ground- and sea-based systems.
The interceptors would likely be designed to operate near the edge of the atmosphere or in low Earth orbit (LEO), with global coverage and rapid response capabilities. They will complement existing systems by adding an outer layer of defense, increasing the probability of intercepting complex threats, such as hypersonic missiles.
In June 2025, the Space Force’s Program Executive Office Space Combat Power sent a Request for Information (RFI) to industry partners to provide information “to identify existing space-based missile defense capabilities and strategize on an architecture of a proliferated [space-based interceptor] constellation capable of boost-phase, mid-course-phase, and glide-phase intercepts.”
While it has been firmly established that space-based interceptors are back in vogue, the contracts have yet to be awarded.
On its part, Lockheed Martin is seeking a share of the contract by achieving the first-mover advantage in one of the most crucial parts of the project, the space-based missile interceptors, as previously explained in detail by the EurAsian Times.
Lockheed Martin stated that it hopes to compete by drawing on its experience with land-based and sea-based interceptors.
“I believe, based on the sheer numbers they’re asking about, it’s going to take more than just one big prime (contractor). It might take multiple of us, as well as a lot of the rest of the industry,” Amanda Pound, director of advanced programs development at Lockheed Martin, said in August. “The goal is to field an on-orbit demonstration of a space-based interceptor by 2028,” Pound said.
As per Pound’s own admission, the company is pursuing a variety of missile-killing ideas, from lasers to satellites that turn into projectiles and maneuver toward hard-to-hit missiles.
Lockheed also revealed the creation of a new “prototyping hub” that will be used to virtually test cutting-edge ideas for space-based missile defense, including new technology from smaller firms or partners. The center was established within the business’s Center for Innovation, commonly known as “the Lighthouse,” in Suffolk, Virginia.
“Prototyping is already underway at the Lighthouse, where real capabilities are being tested against current and future threat scenarios, from ground to space. These capabilities include: threat evaluation, battle management, mission planning tools, sensor tasking, AI/ML integration and optimization, joint planning, robust data link sharing, and more,” the company stated earlier this year. “We’ve built an environment where multiple companies can come together, collaborate, and deliver real mission outcomes fast,” it added.
That said, Lockheed could expect some serious competition in this endeavour, as other defense behemoths such as Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, and even smaller, less popular start-ups are also moving at a breakneck speed to develop a space-based interceptor missile. For instance, Northrop Grumman disclosed in July that it was conducting ground-based testing related to space-based interceptors for Golden Dome.
More recently, a Los Angeles-based satellite manufacturing startup named Apex announced on October 22 that it is investing its own capital to demonstrate its ability to build and deploy interceptors in space for Golden Dome. The company announced its plans to launch a demonstration mission for the said orbital weapons by June 2026.
The Coveted Space-Based Interceptor
While space-based interceptors are taking the centre stage now, the idea itself dates back at least 60 years.
The US Air Force (USAF) was actively investigating multiple space-based interceptor systems, known collectively as ballistic missile boost intercept, or BAMBI. Among these concepts was the Space Patrol Active Defense (SPAD) system. The 30-ton satellite had 140 interceptors, each weighing 300 pounds, an onboard computer to track the rocket boosters’ trajectories, and an infrared sensor to detect rocket boosters.
Each interceptor would be launched from the host satellite using a wire mesh net that was 15 to 50 feet in radius and had many 1-gram pellets affixed to its spokes. While these pellets had the potential to threaten ICBM warheads, leading to their destruction during atmospheric reentry, their primary target was the boosters’ fragile fuel tanks. Should they strike at up to 60,000 feet per second, they would result in catastrophic structural collapse.
The strategy called for placing 500 of these satellites in orbit 250 miles above the Earth’s surface for optimal results. Nevertheless, the project was abandoned due to technical challenges in creating infrared sensors that could identify missile launches during their boost phase and in directing interceptors to their targets.
The idea of SBIs was revisited during the Reagan era, who famously initiated the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or Star Wars. The Reagan administration announced the decision to begin the SDI program in the 1980s.
The Brilliant Pebbles project was one of the ideas that emerged from the SDI program. Its design entailed putting hundreds of missile-firing satellites into orbit, each of which had sensors, a computer on board, and small missiles. These missiles were to work on the Hit-to-Kill (HIT) concept.
But once more, technological limitations and cost overruns led to the project’s abandonment. Moreover, the US was content with existing missile defense systems, such as the Patriot, which effectively defended against ballistic missile threats.
Since then, both Russia and China have made very significant strides in developing hypersonic weapons that cannot be intercepted using the existing missile defense systems, such as the Patriot or the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system. Thus, the US is once again turning to the idea of space-based interceptors, as explained in-depth by the EurAsian Times earlier this year.
However, the SDI has also sparked considerable discourse on the challenges associated with its development and deployment.
In addition to technical challenges, space-based interceptors and other assets in orbit present logistical challenges, such as the space launch capacity required to place the host satellites into orbit. Moreover, adversaries like China have allegedly developed weapons that can disable the satellite in a conflict.
SBIs require integration with a constellation of satellites for sensors, fire-control, and data links. Ensuring seamless communication and Artificial Intelligence-driven battle management in real-time is technically demanding.
The Pentagon officials are grappling with a more significant issue as the sector considers ideas for new interceptors: how to scale the architecture and finance the enormous number of space-based interceptors required to halt a flurry of missiles during the boost phase.
Analysts contend that the economics are difficult, if not impossible. Even with hundreds of interceptors in orbit, the enemy might readily overwhelm the system at a relatively low cost.
Todd Harrison, a senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that if an enemy launches ten missiles, the government would require around 10,000 interceptors since it would take about 950 interceptors dispersed throughout orbit to ensure that there is one that could destroy a missile during its boost phase.
Despite these challenges, there is optimism that the development efforts will continue and are expected to result in a design that the US really likes. Whether it is the Lockheed Martin that makes the cut or not remains to be seen.
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