This is who's developing Golden Dome's orbital interceptors—if they're ever built

Booz Allen Hamilton is best known as an integrator and data services company serving the defense sector. General Dynamics provides “critical communications and electronics” for space missions, and was already selected to develop the ground control system for the military’s network of low-Earth orbit missile tracking and data connectivity satellites, according to its website. Raytheon, also known as RTX, builds missile warning sensors, ground control software (with a not-so-stellar recent track record), and manufactures small satellites through its subsidiary, Blue Canyon Technologies. “Adversary capabilities are advancing rapidly, and our acquisition strategies must move even faster to counter the growing speed and maneuverability of modern missile threats,” said Col. Bryon McClain, program executive officer for space combat power at Space Systems Command. The OTA acquisition framework for SBIs “attracted both traditional and non-traditional vendors, while harnessing American innovation, and ensuring continuous competition,” McClain said in a Space Force press release. “With the commitment and collaboration of these industry partners, the Space Force will demonstrate an initial capability in 2028.” The Iran war has also diminished existing stocks of US missile interceptors, which the Pentagon plans to integrate with Golden Dome to form ground, sea, and airborne layers to go along with the space layer in low-Earth orbit. Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told a House subcommittee April 15 that will take a “number of years to replenish” the interceptors used in less than two months of the Iran war. “We are looking at the threats from a multi-domain perspective to make sure I have redundant capabilities and I don’t have single points of failure,” he added. “So, if boost-phase intercept from space is not affordable and scalable, we will not produce it, because we have other options to get after it.” Boost-phase intercepts would aim to destroy a missile within a few minutes after its launch, when it is still within or close to the atmosphere. In those early minutes, the heat from the missile’s exhaust plume would make it relatively easy to detect and target, but an interceptor in orbit would require a powerful impulse to reach it. The military is also interested in using SBIs for midcourse intercepts, when a missile is coasting through space, and during glide phase as they reenter the atmosphere. By then, though, a missile may have released countermeasures or multiple reentry vehicles. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, is the top Democrat on the House Strategic Forces subcommittee. He questions the premise that Golden Dome could deter future attacks, pointing to Iran’s sustained missile and drone strikes across the Middle East, despite the operational success of US and Israeli defenses. “That basic theory seems blown out of the water by our current experience, which is that we have incredibly robust missile defense across the Middle East,” Moulton said. “We’ve been singing its praises in a very bipartisan way, and yet it has not stopped Iran in the least from shooting a lot of missiles and drones at us and our allies.” “I think we’re talking about a regime that may be beyond deterrence,” said Marc Berkowitz, the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, referring to Iran. “They have, for decades, pursued nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.” The Trump administration is requesting $17 billion for Golden Dome in fiscal year 2027, which begins October 1. Nearly all of the requested funding is packaged in a reconciliation bill, not in the White House’s regular annual funding request. While Republican lawmakers still voice support for Golden Dome, there is little appetite for the partisan budget battle a party-line reconciliation bill would spark ahead of this year’s midterm elections, Politico reported Thursday. Putting the Golden Dome funding request in a bill that may never reach the House or Senate floor is “not great signaling by this White House about the supposedly drastic need for Golden Dome,” a former defense official told Politico.