Golden Dome weapons to attack enemy missiles with new high-tech interceptors, lasers, cyberattacks

The Golden Dome will employ advanced ground-based interceptors, space-based missiles, laser guns and cyberattacks to defend against threats to the U.S., according to officials.

The current national U.S. missile defense network is limited and incapable of effectively countering attacks from Chinese or Russian hypersonic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, the officials told a Senate hearing.

Mounting threats include growing numbers of sophisticated intercontinental-range ballistic missiles deployed by China and Russia, along with hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other aerial threats that can defeat current defenses, officials disclosed Monday.

Marc J. Berkowitz, assistant defense secretary for space policy, testified Tuesday that Golden Dome will augment U.S. strategic nuclear deterrent weapons.

“We are in a very complex and dangerous security environment where our rivals have dramatically expanded their missile and aerial arsenals,” Mr. Berkowitz told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.

“The threat they pose, whether nuclear armed or even conventional, are truly grave threats to our homeland, to the American population, to our critical infrastructures and to our second strike capability,” he said, referring to the ability of nuclear missiles, bombers and submarines to conduct attacks after an initial strategic attack.

Mr. Berkowitz said current ground-based missile defenses using interceptors in Alaska and California are very limited and designed to stop a few North Korean ICBMs, and currently there are no defenses against both hypersonic and advanced cruise missiles.

Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, director of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program, also said current nationwide missile defenses are limited and need to be upgraded.

“Golden Dome is designed to go after the next generation aerial threats which includes unmanned aerial systems against our homeland, cruise missiles, hypersonic and maneuvering hypersonic missiles, as well as ballistics from the air and ballistics from the sea,” Gen. Guetlein said.

The cost of the system is projected to be $185 billion; the program seeks to field the first elements by mid-2028, he said.

Missile defense of the American mainland in the past focused on rogue nation threats, the four-star general said.

But new technology is undercutting the advantage of a geographically isolated U.S. that’s protected by two vast oceans. 

Strike capabilities from China and Russia have rapidly improved — and both countries are developing the technology for orbiting nuclear strike systems, called fractional orbital bombardment systems, he said.

“So Golden Dome is protecting for both conventional threats that we see unfolding on television every day, as well as nuclear-capable threats that could be brought against the homeland,” he said.

Asked how many uncrewed aerial vehicles China has that are capable of attacking the U.S., Gen. Guetlein said complete numbers are secret, but the range is from “several hundred to several tens of thousands,” depending on the type of UAV threat.

Mr. Berkowitz said China remains the most significant threat and its military modernization has been both rapid and comprehensive with new nuclear and missile forces that can strike U.S. territory and forces from “multiple vectors.”

China also has built network systems designed to track and engage mobile military forces in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.

Sen. Angus King, Maine independent, asked during the hearing why a new defense shield is needed now against China when for 70 years no similar defenses were needed for threats from the Soviet Union and Russia.

“Why won’t deterrence work with China if it worked for 80 years with the Russians?” Mr. King asked.

Mr. Berkowitz said the strategic environment since the end of the Cold War has changed dramatically with the U.S. no longer facing a single monolithic threat.

Current dangers emanate from multiple nuclear rivals armed with increasingly sophisticated missile and aerial threats, he said.

“I believe that strategic stability cannot be based on U.S. societal vulnerability to assured retaliation,” Mr. Berkowitz said.

Current enemy powers do not accept the idea that societal vulnerability produces stability, and both Russia and China along with other actors have long pursued integrated air and missile defense systems, he said.

Those nations’ objections to U.S. missile defenses are not about preserving strategic stability, Mr. Berkowitz said. They are seeking a weakening or constraining of American defense capabilities that would “complicate their ability to use coercive threats or to attack the United States,” he said.

Beijing and Moscow have opposed the Golden Dome program by insisting that U.S. vulnerability to attack is stabilizing while simultaneously rejecting such vulnerability for their states, he said.

“The Golden Dome is intended to be a complement to our nuclear deterrent because in conjunction with our nuclear triad, a homeland missile defense capability will provide the U.S. with both a sword and a shield that will have a synergistic benefit to strengthen deterrence,” Mr. Berkowitz said.

“And should deterrence fail, it will provide a means to protect the territorial integrity of the nation and the lives of our citizens.”

Gen. Guetlein declined to provide extensive details of the planned nationwide system to protect all 50 states during the public hearing. However, the overall structure of the system has been approved, and Gen. Guetlein said the use of artificial intelligence and new high-technology weapons, along with current defense systems, will allow the defense of the entire American homeland.

He said Golden Dome will build on the capabilities of independent systems by integrating and networking those systems in “new and innovative ways” to take advantage of next-generation level … artificial intelligence.”

Golden Dome weapons will include both kinetic-kill and electronic or directed energy destructors, the general said, as well as “left of launch” counterttacks — phrase often used to refer to the use of cyberattacks to disable missiles before launch.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath A. Collins, director of the Missile Defense Agency that is working on Golden Dome weapons, testified at the hearing that his agency is focused on “delivering new and disruptive capabilities across the air, land, sea, and space domains” instead of preserving specific missile defense platforms.

Testing for new Gold Dome weapons will include aerial, ground and cyber tests as part of a program called Missile Defense System-Next (MDS-Next), he said in prepared testimony.

“Our goal is to change the calculus for our adversaries by fielding advanced capabilities for MDS-Next at a speed that preserves the warfighter’s decisive military advantage,” he said.

The strategy is built on speeding up innovation, greater ability in weapons acquisition, and increased partnerships.

“We are shortening development timelines for asymmetric capabilities like directed energy, low-cost interceptors, and advanced sensors,” Gen. Collins said.

The three-star general also warned that sophisticated missile threats from adversaries, mainly China, are advancing rapidly.

“Adversaries are developing new missiles and improving existing systems, emphasizing precision strike capabilities and missile defense penetration,” he said. “Future threats include ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), non-kinetic- and cyber-attacks.”

The Pentagon now believes current missile threats are capable of maneuvering through all phases of flight, a capabilities that greatly complicates missile defenses, he said.

“China maintains a large and growing arsenal of nuclear and conventional long-range systems along with cyber and space capabilities that can directly threaten American security,” Gen. Collins said.

Russia, North Korea and Iran also pose significant missile threats, with Iran conducting the largest single-day barrage of missile and drone strikes on April 13, he said.

A total of more than 100 ballistic missiles and over 150 one-way attack drones and 30 cruise missiles were launched that day, Gen. Collins said.

One key part of Golden Dome is called Project Maverick that will be tested next year as a short-term hypersonic missile defense capability located on the East Coast.

The demonstration will seek to prove the U.S. has the ability to track and attack advanced hypersonic glide vehicles through fusing data from sensors, Gen. Collins said.

The agency is also working on a low-cost interceptor missiles to be tested in 2028 that will allow Golden Dome to produce large numbers of anti-missile interceptors, he said.

Work on high-energy laser guns on different platforms is being accelerated and artificial intelligence is being added to weapons systems for increasing the power to attack enemy missiles, Gen. Collins said.

The AI power will be key to defending against multi-wave missile attacks, he said.A new high-technology ground-based interceptor also is being built to replace the interceptors now in Alaska and California, he said.

Space-based interceptors that can knock out missiles in boost-phase will augment land- and sea-based defenses, he said.

Gen. Collins said, “a space-based missile defense layer would offer numerous benefits, including a persistent on-call global presence, which would reduce the risks associated with hostile missiles launched with little or no notice from different regions around the world.”