Pentagon's Golden Dome to have four-layer defense system

(Patria) - The Trump administration's main missile defense system, the Golden Dome, will include four layers - one satellite and three ground-based, with eleven short-range batteries located across the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, according to a U.S. government slide presentation on the project.

The slides, marked "Go Fast, Think Big!", were presented last week to 3,000 defense contractors in Huntsville, Alabama, and reveal the unprecedented complexity of the system, which faces an ambitious deadline of 2028 set by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The system is estimated to cost $175 billion, but the slides show that uncertainties still loom over the project's basic architecture as the number of launchers, interceptors, ground stations, and missile sites needed for the system has not yet been determined.

"They have a lot of money, but they don't have a target yet for how much it will cost," said one U.S. official.

So far, Congress has allocated $25 billion for the Golden Dome in Trump's tax and spending bill passed in July. An additional $45.3 billion is earmarked for the Golden Dome in his fiscal year 2026 presidential budget request.

Conceived as a multi-layered missile defense shield for the United States, the Golden Dome draws inspiration from Israel's Iron Dome, but is significantly larger due to the geography it will have to protect and more complex due to the different threats it will face.

According to the slides, the system's architecture consists of four integrated layers: a space layer for detection and targeting for missile warning and tracking, as well as "missile defense," and three ground-based layers consisting of interceptor missiles, radar arrays, and potentially lasers.

One surprise was a new large missile field - seemingly in the Midwest according to a map contained in the presentation, for Next Generation Interceptors (NGI) produced by Lockheed Martin and which would be part of the "upper layer" alongside Aegis systems for high-altitude defense (THAAD) also produced by Lockheed.

NGI is a modernized missile for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) network of radars, interceptors, and other equipment - currently the primary missile defense shield for protecting the United States from intercontinental ballistic missiles from rogue states.

The U.S. operates GMD launch sites in Southern California and Alaska. This plan would add a third location in the Midwest to counter additional threats.

Other technical hurdles identified by the slides include communication latency in the system's "kill chain." Contractors such as Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, RTX, and Boeing have various missile defense systems.

Notably, the slides did not mention Elon Musk's SpaceX, which was part of the bid for Golden Dome contracts along with software maker Palantir and defense systems maker Anduril.

The Pentagon said it is gathering information "from industry, academia, national laboratories, and other government agencies to support the Golden Dome," but that it would be "unreasonable" to release more information about the program in these early stages.

One of the key goals of the Golden Dome is to shoot down targets during their "boost phase," the slow and predictable ascent of a missile through the Earth's atmosphere. Instead, it seeks to place interceptors in space that can intercept incoming missiles more quickly.

The presentation emphasized that the U.S. has "built both interceptors and reentry vehicles," but has never built a vehicle that can withstand the heat of reentry while targeting an enemy missile.

The final lines of defense, called the "lower layer" and "Limited Area Defense," will include new radars and current systems such as the Patriot missile defense system and a new "joint" launcher that will launch current and future interceptors against all types of threats.

These modular and mobile systems would be designed to minimize reliance on prepared sites, allowing for rapid deployment to multiple battlefields.

Space Force General Michael Guetlein, who was confirmed last month to lead the Golden Dome project, has 30 days from his July 17 confirmation to form a team, an additional 60 days to deliver an initial system design, and 120 days to present a full implementation plan, including details on satellites and ground stations, sources familiar with a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Reuters.