The Pentagon has selected more than 1,000 companies that could eventually work on the aspirational “Golden Dome” project, a brainchild of US President Donald Trump.
The Golden Dome missile defense system is an ambitious, multi-layered defense architecture aimed at protecting the US homeland from ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, as well as other evolving aerial threats. The project is expected to be completed by 2028, before the end of Donald Trump’s term, but critics remain skeptical.
On December 2, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced the first in a series of awards under the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, with a $151 billion cap for 10 years. The agency stated that the first phase of staggered awards has been given to 1,014 offerers, adding that the winners were selected from about 2,463 bids.
The bigwigs of the defense industry, including General Atomics, BAE Systems, and L3Harris, are reportedly among those chosen.
“This contract encompasses a broad range of work areas that allow for the rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter with increased speed and agility,” the Defense Department said in an announcement. With this, the Pentagon has a diverse pool of firms that can quickly be involved in the development of systems for the Golden Dome.
At the same time, however, the MDA stated emphatically that the selection should not be misconstrued as an early indicator of requirements for the Golden Dome.
It is pertinent to note that IDIQ vehicles do not obligate the government to purchase anything. Instead, they set terms for future work. They are typically used by agencies to hold competitions for tasks or delivery orders as needs arise.
Simply put, the initial SHIELD awards are intended to build a portfolio of eligible companies capable of working on initiatives like Golden Dome.
The MDA reportedly published the SHIELD RFP (Request for Proposal), emphasising 19 potential “scope areas” including early science, disruptive tech, production, sustainment, modernization, and facilities work. These scopes will be limited, and specific jobs will be defined by task orders issued later.
SHIELD is now President Donald Trump’s second contracting vehicle for the construction of a multi-layered missile defense system for the continental United States. The first one, known as the Multiple Authority Announcement (MAA), was released earlier this year and covers contracting areas for command and control, space-based sensors and interceptors, kinetic and hypersonic defense, and more.
The list of potential contractors also includes Elbit America, the American division of the Israeli company Elbit Systems, which is also associated with Israel’s Iron Dome and is co-developing the Iron Beam laser-based air defense.
Inspired by Israel’s success with the Iron Dome, US President Donald Trump sought to replicate Israel’s defense success by proposing an “superior” version of the Iron Dome.
The program, announced just a week into Trump’s presidency, was initially dubbed “Iron Dome for America.” However, the Pentagon discreetly rebranded Trump’s ambitious National Missile Defense Initiative, renaming it “Golden Dome for America.”
Since its operational deployment in 2011, the Iron Dome has been a cornerstone of Israel’s Air and Missile Defense Array, working alongside the Arrow and David’s Sling systems to form a layered air defense network. US officials earlier acknowledged that the Golden Dome is an ambitious undertaking and would require scaling the Iron Dome concept to a national level.
So, while the Golden Dome is inspired by Iron Dome, it is a far more ambitious, multi-layered, and technologically advanced defense system intended for nationwide protection, not just regional defense.
While Iron Dome is a ground-based system for short-range threats like rockets, Golden Dome proposes a multi-layered shield that integrates land, sea, and a first-of-its-kind space-based layer for intercepting a wider range of threats, including long-range ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles.
Golden Dome Takes Shape
The Golden Dome 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.
A key element of the larger missile shield being constructed to defend mainland America is the development of space-based interceptors. In fact, the White House’s January executive order for the development of a multi-layered defensive shield explicitly asks for the deployment of space-based interceptors to be “proliferated”—that is, not just a small number, but enough to ensure dependable 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 in orbit could monitor launches, receive fire-control commands, and react within seconds, destroying missiles before they exit enemy airspace or release decoys.
These space-based interceptors would be integrated into a constellation of satellites with sophisticated sensors and fire-control systems with the goal of identifying, tracking, and eliminating incoming projectiles before they reach US or allied territory.
“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,” states the Department of Defense.
With worldwide coverage and quick reaction times, the interceptors would likely be built to operate in low Earth orbit (LEO) or near the edge of the atmosphere. They will enhance current systems and increase the likelihood of intercepting sophisticated threats such as hypersonic missiles by providing an additional line of defense.
In early August, the United States administration shared plans for the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system architecture with defense contractors through a series of slides titled “Go Fast, Think Big!”
According to this plan, the Golden Dome architecture will consist of four integrated layers: one space-based and three land-based layers.
The first layer would consist of a constellation of satellites for missile warning, tracking, and interception, with a focus on boost-phase intercepts.
While the presentation emphasized that the US “has built both interceptors and re-entry vehicles” for space-based missile interception in the past, it acknowledged that the country has never produced a vehicle capable of withstanding the heat of re-entry while targeting a hostile missile.
The presentation stated that the program will have three land-based layers, including missile interceptors, radar arrays, and potentially lasers.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
