Golden Dome, President Donald Trump’s proposed U.S. missile defense system, could leverage AI services to boost the system’s autonomy and reduce the manpower required for the system’s operation, according to a news report.
The U.S. Army is scouting for AI capabilities for Golden Dome as it is a large contributor to the air and missile defense portions of the proposed multi-billion-dollar system, Defense News reported. The service is providing new, modern radars, an Indirect Fire Protection Capability and a fresh Integrated Battle Command System to a missile defense apparatus in Guam.
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Maj. Gen. Francisco Lozano, U.S. Army program executive officer for missiles and space, told Defense News that he wants increased AI-powered fire control for Golden Dome to slash the manpower required for operation and sustainment. Instead of using the standard two-to-three person crew with a launcher and a missile, Lozano envisions Golden Dome using containerized missiles requiring less upkeep as a reduced manpower requirement would require fewer checkups every couple of weeks with remote testing.
“We’re wanting to integrate more AI-enabled fire control [to] help us reduce the manpower footprint,” Lozano said. “We need to have more autonomously operated systems.”
What Is Golden Dome?
Golden Dome is an ambitious and big-budget “system of systems” that will include space-based interceptors, or SBIs, and sensors to defend against aerial attacks from adversarial ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles. Golden Dome has been reported as costing $175 billion over the next three years, with the White House working to leverage $25 billion from the reconciliation bill that passed in the House as initial funding.
But Golden Dome could breach that $175 billion price tag as it could require more space-based interceptors than previously expected, according to Breaking Defense. While a reduction in launch costs over the past 20 years could reduce the price of creating and deploying SBIs, the Congressional Budget Office said Golden Dome could require more SBIs than in proposed systems evaluated earlier by DOD that were only focused on incoming nuclear weapons from North Korea.
CBO said this was because North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles have grown in number and quality since those studies were originally published. Additionally, Golden Dome’s mission of also protecting the U.S. from attack from peer or near-peer enemies would require a more expansive space-based interceptor capability than systems previously studied.
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Golden Dome Command and Control
One of the most critical parts will be Golden Dome’s ground systems and software that will connect it all together. Mark Henrie, Amentum division vice president and deputy general manager, told Space News that a big challenge with Golden Dome will be how to command and control such a complex apparatus. Amentum has developed ground control systems for the Missile Defense Agency and is interested in Golden Dome.
Henrie said Golden Dome will require C2 distributed across the world and would have to transfer battle management from one area to another. Ground systems would have to take data from spacecraft, radars and other surveillance infrastructure to figure out the optimal target track and assign the best interceptor before transferring the engagement command.
Golden Dome will also rely on analytics software and other data integration capabilities. Companies such as L3Harris or Palantir could contribute ground-system technologies.
Golden Dome’s Path Forward
MDA originally planned to have a Golden Dome industry summit on June 11 in Huntsville, Alabama. That was cancelled and has not yet been rescheduled.
