The White Home this week formally tapped the Area Power’s No. 2 officer to supervise the sweeping Golden Dome missile protection undertaking.
Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the vice chief of house operations, is nominated to tackle the function of “direct reporting program supervisor” for Golden Dome, the Pentagon introduced June 18. A June 16 discover within the Congressional Document indicated Guetlein could be reassigned however didn’t specify his new job.
President Donald Trump introduced Guetlein would run the Golden Dome program at a White Home press convention final month.
Golden Dome is envisioned as a huge community of sensors, interceptor weapons, and electronic-attack instruments that—like its inspiration, Israel’s Iron Dome—would defend the US from ballistic and cruise missiles. Trump is pushing for the undertaking to turn out to be operational by the top of his time period in 2029, a aim protection specialists say is unlikely.
Guetlein can be tasked with pulling collectively present navy methods—relying closely on the navy house enterprise that the four-star has helped construct—and fielding new ones to trace, warn of, and disable or destroy incoming missiles, just like the Reagan-era “Star Wars” initiative that failed to come back to fruition.
Such an enterprise would price lots of of billions of {dollars} to develop and launch. Trump has projected a $175 billion price ticket, whereas an unbiased estimate pegged the price of space-based missile interceptors alone at greater than $542 billion over 20 years.
Guetlein, who has likened Golden Dome’s scope to the Manhattan Challenge that developed America’s first nuclear weapons, isn’t any stranger to main acquisition initiatives. The final led the Area Power’s acquisition department, Area Techniques Command, for 2 years following stints as deputy director of the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace and a program govt on the Missile Protection Company.
He’ll turn out to be the face of certainly one of Trump’s prime protection priorities, significantly because the administration seems to be to jumpstart its progress with a $25 billion infusion of funds by means of the large GOP-led spending package deal into consideration on Capitol Hill. It’s unclear how a lot cash the Pentagon is searching for for Golden Dome in complete subsequent 12 months.
Republicans and Democrats alike have criticized the Trump administration for searching for billions of {dollars} to fund Golden Dome in 2026 with few particulars of how it will spend that cash.
“We nonetheless haven’t seen a transparent definition of what it’s,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who chairs the Home Appropriations Committee’s protection panel, mentioned June 10. He questioned how Golden Dome would defend the continental U.S., in addition to Hawaii and Alaska, with out “spending some huge cash unnecessarily.”
Over the course of a number of latest congressional hearings, lawmakers and protection officers have begun piecing collectively a clearer image of how Golden Dome would possibly work. Air Power and Area Power leaders anticipate their providers will play a big half in bringing Golden Dome to life.
Gen. Likelihood Saltzman, the Area Power’s prime officer, advised Home lawmakers June 5 Golden Dome will spur the service to tackle necessities for missions which have by no means been completed by a navy house group. He expects leaders will lay the “foundational groundwork” for Golden Dome by the top of September, noting that the Area Power is already discussing find out how to combine its methods with different navy providers and companies.
Protection officers have floated a number of concepts of present and future applied sciences that might turn out to be a part of Golden Dome.
Plugged into that community might be heat-seeking sensors and synthetic intelligence-powered focusing on instruments; Northrop Grumman’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Monitoring Area Sensor Satellites which are designed to observe low-flying, fast-moving weapons; and undersea submarine-tracking sensors, amongst different gear, navy officers advised lawmakers.
“I believe that it’s a seabed-to-space method,” mentioned U.S. Northern Command boss Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, who can be the nation’s prime homeland protection officer as head of the North American Aerospace Protection Command (NORAD).
“We have to have undersea sensors to detect submarines that may now get nearer to North America than they might earlier than based mostly on improved stealthiness of these ships,” he advised senators Could 13. “Then a floor layer that may see a lot additional out due to the superior standoff weapons that our adversaries can now make use of.”
Then add an air layer, just like the E-7 Wedgetail airborne target-tracking airplane, and an area layer, he mentioned. The Pentagon has indicated it will abandon the Air Power’s plan to purchase a fleet of Wedgetails in favor of ultimately counting on satellites to trace airborne targets—an method critics say would go away the U.S. navy far in need of the aircraft- and missile-tracking capabilities it wants till these house property are prepared.
“I think that [Golden Dome] would be capable of use a variety of the methods which are already in place and at the moment in improvement, which might give us a full functionality in in all probability one thing nearer to zero to 5 years, versus one thing a decade out into the long run,” Guillot mentioned.
The undertaking will even require a buildup of radars and navy communications infrastructure round inhabitants facilities and protection websites, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) added June 18 at a Senate Armed Providers Committee listening to on the 2026 protection funds.
Air Power Chief of Workers Gen. David W. Allvin cautioned that the entire Golden Dome enterprise—from the sensors that see an enemy strike to the software program that processes reconnaissance pictures and the weapons that neutralize a menace—”all needs to be stitched collectively.” The service has struggled to community its personal sensors and shooters as an alternative choice to jet-based battle administration over the previous a number of years.
“We’re doing the mission evaluation,” Allvin mentioned on the June 5 Home Armed Providers Committee listening to on the Division of the Air Power’s funds request. “Which methods are required . . . so we will transfer knowledge to the precise locations and most successfully orchestrate a really complicated mission set?”
Whereas Saltzman mentioned on the June 5 listening to it’s too early in that evaluation to know whether or not Golden Dome would defend the U.S. from bomb-laden small drones like those who attacked Russian bomber plane earlier this month, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth advised lawmakers a couple of days later that the Pentagon’s 2026 funds request consists of “sturdy will increase” in hypersonic weapons, drones and counter-drone expertise, and surveillance instruments that might turn out to be a part of Golden Dome.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Gen. Dan Caine advised Home lawmakers June 12 that the Protection Division is ballistic missile defenses just like the Military’s Terminal Excessive-Altitude Space Protection system and the Navy’s Aegis Ashore system to make sure they will join to supply all-encompassing safety with none gaps.
Among the many largest classes the U.S. can undertake from Iron Dome is Israel’s insistence on plug-and-play expertise—not like America’s bespoke methods that always want modifications or add-ons to speak to different navy gear.
“You can’t even promote a system to the Israeli navy . . . that isn’t open structure, that won’t work with the remainder of their methods, so that you don’t find yourself with a proprietary system that’s standalone,” U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Michael E. Kurilla advised HASC June 10. “We want methods that may combine and all speak to one another.”
A spokesperson for the Senate Armed Providers Committee didn’t reply June 18 when the panel would possibly contemplate Guetlein’s nomination.
If Guetlein is confirmed, his departure from Area Power management would go away the Air Power and Area Power with out Senate-approved vice chiefs. Trump fired Air Power Vice Chief of Workers Gen. Jim Slife in February’s purge of prime brass that additionally included the ousters of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Gen. CQ Brown Jr. and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti.
Hegseth mentioned on the time the firings sought to “focus our navy on its core mission of deterring, preventing and successful wars.”
