The Golden Dome for America

Huntsville, Alabama hosted the 28th Annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium from August 5-7, 2025. This year’s theme was “Defending America at Home and Abroad.” Apart from the numerous exhibitors spanning all facets of the space and missile defense industry (vendor booths filled the sprawling Von Braun Convention Center to capacity with state of the art circuit boards, sensor systems, radar technology, simulations, cyber security solutions etc.,), the main attraction of the symposium was the Golden Dome for America Industry Summit which took place on August 7, 2025 and was at near capacity within the Propst Hockey Arena. The event was hosted by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) led by Lieutenant General Heath Collins (USAF). See, Department of Defense Directive 5134.09, Missile Defense Agency, (April 25, 2025).  Stakeholders from every Military Department (MILDEP) as well as from MDA, i.e., US Air Force, Army, Navy, U.S. Space Force as well as the Joint Department of Defense Program Executive Officers within MDA, briefed industry for over two hours on the current challenges inherent in the present missile defense capabilities as well as the desired attributes for the next generation of missile defense capabilities - the Golden Dome for America. The briefing was unclassified and based on public sources.

What is the Golden Dome for America?

In Executive Order 14186 (E.O.), The Iron Dome for America, President Trump declared on January 27, 2025 that the United States is vulnerable to catastrophic attack by ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles as well as by other forms of advanced aerial attacks. The E.O. states that it will be the policy of the United States to “provide for the common defense of its citizens… by deploying and maintaining a next-generation missile defense shield.” To implement this policy, the President orders the Secretary of Defense to submit to the President within 60 days of the date of the order “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.” An example of what this architecture must consist of includes plans for:

• Acceleration of the deployment of the hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor layer
• Deployment and development of proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept and development
• Deployment of a secure supply chain for all components with next generation security and resilience features

See, E.O. Sec.3 (a)(ii), (iii) and (vii) respectively.

 “The Iron Dome for America” moniker was soon abandoned as it was too closely associated with an entirely different set of capabilities - Israel’s current missile defense system (the Iron Dome) which uses radar to detect and intercept short-range slow-moving rockets and artillery shells coming into Israeli air space traveling at low altitudes and within a tight geographic radius. By contrast, the renamed Golden Dome for America (GD) aspires to detect and intercept hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles as well as other advanced aerial attacks like drone swarms from four separate layers surrounding the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. These four layers for missile defense are: space, upper, under and at the multi-domain surface referred to as the “limited area defense domain”. The goal is that the GD will detect and intercept based on a 360-degree view of fast-moving, high altitude, wide geographic radius symmetric and asymmetric threats deploying both kinetic and non-kinetic measures.

Congress, on July 4, 2025 under Public Law No. 119-21 (H.R.1- One Big Beautiful Bill Act, hereinafter “the Act”), in turn appropriated funding to the Department of Defense (DoD) in order to begin the mission. The President has referred to the following appropriations as an “initial deposit” on the Golden Dome. The rough order of magnitude for Golden Dome is $151 billion over ten years, but some experts estimate a price tag over $700 billion to cover development, fielding, maintenance and sustainment of the new missile defense system. Note that the Act does not specifically identify the Golden Dome for America under the amounts appropriated.

At Sec.20003. Enhancement of the Department of Defense Resources for Integrated Air and Missile Defense of the Act, Congress appropriates $18.8 billion for next generation missile defense. This is the breakdown:

(1) $250,000,000 for development and testing of directed energy capabilities by the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering;

(2) $500,000,000 for national security space launch infrastructure;

(3) $2,000,000,000 for air moving target indicator military satellites;

(4) $400,000,000 for expansion of Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed program;

(5) $530,000,000 for the design and construction of Missile Defense Agency missile instrumentation range safety ship

(6) $7,200,000,000 for the development, procurement, and integration of military space-based sensors; and

(7) $2,550,000,000 for the development, procurement, and integration of military missile defense capabilities.

At Sec. 20003(b), Congress appropriates an additional $5.9 billion for layered homeland defense:

(1) $2,200,000,000 for acceleration of hypersonic defense systems;

(2) $800,000,000 for accelerated development and deployment of next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile defense systems;

(3) $408,000,000 for Army space and strategic missile test range infrastructure restoration and modernization in the United States Indo-Pacific Command area of operations west of the international dateline;

(4) $1,975,000,000 for improved ground-based missile defense radars; and

(5) $530,000,000 for the design and construction of Missile Defense Agency missile instrumentation range safety ship

What does executing the Golden Dome (GD) for America entail for client opportunities in Huntsville, AL?

The GD is already the largest investment in the nation’s missile defense since the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative of 1983 (commonly referred to as the Star Wars Program). Though defunct as an initiative, Reagan’s vision formed the foundation for the nation’s current missile defense system - an architecture comprised of multi-domain sensors, weapons systems, interceptors and the Command and Control Battle Management Communications “C2BMC” under contract with Lockheed Martin. This foundation spurred a cascade of investment in the missile defense industry and all supporting industries.

Now, the second generation of missile defense investment and development appears to have landed squarely in Huntsville. Again, MDA leads the GD mission and is headquartered in Huntsville. The U.S. Space Force, a major stakeholder in executing the GD mission, still sits in Colorado, but its relocation to Huntsville is imminent. Congress has already appropriated almost $25 billion for the GD. This investment alone, in a multi-sector government business opportunity being administered from Huntsville, is significant in and of itself for not only the city, but also the defense and non-defense industries who benefit from large government procurements like these. This initial investment will more than quadruple if Congress approves additional funding.

Opportunities and Industry Days

MDA has the impossible task of designing, soliciting, evaluating, testing, contracting, executing and coordinating across all MILDEPs and all of industry for the GD. To execute this mission for fielding by the fall of 2028, MDA has called upon all of industry to dedicate its best and brightest to design and field the GD; both the large traditional defense and non-defense contractors as well as non-traditional defense contractors have been corralled through the various outreach efforts already underway by the MDA.

• Missile Defense Agency Shield Multiple Award IDIQ Contract: draft request for proposal posted July 24, 2025 and response date of August 18, 2025 – 10-year and $151 billion ceiling;
• Missile Defense Agency - Multiple Authority Announcement: posted July 31, 2025 and offers due through March 26, 2030;
• Request for Information for Southeast Radar: posted July 31, 2025 and response due August 20, 2025;
• Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Theater Ground Based Radar Request for Information: posted July 24, 2025 and responses due September 8, 2025;
• Missile Defense Agency (MDA) AN/TPY-2 Adjunct Request for Information: posted July 24, 2025 and responses due September 8, 2025;
• Next Generation Missile Defense Under Lay Site Launchers RFI: posted July 22, 2025 and responses due August 18, 2025;
• MDA has also created a “one-stop shop” for all soon to be advertised and currently advertised opportunities at – MDA - PartnerWithUs;
• August 20, 2025 at UAH SBDC and APEX 17th Annual Small Business Matchmaker;
• September 11, 2025 HASBAT Monthly Meeting;
• October 21-22, 2025 Missile Defense Agency Small Business Conference;
• TBD Connecting with MDA Primes.

Multi-Disciplinary Requirements

The GD requires a vast array of multi-disciplinary (multi-sectoral), multi-generational as well as international expertise. Outside of the needed radar and launch industry capabilities, the ten-year $151 billion ceiling IDIQ lists 19 work areas that fall within the scope of the contract.

1. Science and Technology (S&T)
2. Research and Development (R&D)
3. Prototyping
4. Studies, Demonstrations, Testing of Prototypes
5. Disruptive Technologies
6. Experimentation
7. Architecture Development
8. Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis
9. Systems Engineering
10. Weapon Design and Development
11. Integration and Assembly
12. Production and Fielding
13. Test and Evaluation (T&E)
14. Operation and Sustainment
15. Modernization
16. Hardware and Software Modifications
17. Data Mining/Collection/Analysis
18. Minor Facilities Engineering/Construction
19. Cybersecurity

Note that the draft IDIQ specifically excludes advisory and assistance services, management and professional support services as well as systems engineering and technical assistance, i.e., the services required to support the numerous acquisition processes for GD. MDA will be hard pressed soon to either contract for or hire the administrative and technical talent required to place even the current appropriated amounts on contract.

The Multiple Authority Announcement (MAA) represents another variation of the multi-sectoral industry resources required for GD. MAA is an advanced capability concept solicitation that provides non-traditional defense contractors a rolling opportunity to present MDA with white papers proposing concepts that demonstrate technological innovations, prototype demonstrations and scientific breakthroughs that will significantly enhance the robustness and effectiveness of the missile defense system’s elements. MDA recommends that vendors propose new, unique and innovative ideas under the following eight (8) areas which are only suggestive and not limiting:  kinetic and hypersonic defense; command and control battle management; integrated non-kinetic and electronic warfare; disruptive technologies; space-based sensors, interceptors and effectors; digital revolution; radiation effects, heavy ion, proton and pulsed neutron single event effects on electronic devices and systems; and international missile defense cooperation.

The international cooperation element of MDA’s GD requirements is noteworthy. This requirement includes proposing concepts for working directly with a foreign company, entity or university as either a major partner or subcontractor. MDA’s current missile defense system is internationally interdependent and cooperates with 13 countries in Europe and NATO; four countries in the Middle East; and three countries in Asia and the Pacific. Recall that the Act has appropriated over $400 million to the US Indo-Pacific Command for the Army’s space and strategic missile test range infrastructure restoration and modernization. Any international cooperation proposals will be subject to the U.S. Export Control laws and additional legal restrictions associated with U.S. vendors working with foreign entities.

Expedited and Flexible Acquisition Authority

Finally, MDA has been granted broader acquisition authorities to streamline the on-boarding of vendors to meet fielding by the Fall of 2028. Federal acquisition vehicles are known for their administratively cumbersome and often innovation-stifling character. MDA proposes that it can streamline and expedite onboarding vendors using the following acquisition authorities:

• Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) – Other Competitive Procedures
• FAR 35.016 – Broad agency announcement
• Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 235.016 – Broad agency announcement
• DFARS 235.006-71 – Competition
• DFARS 212.70 – Commercial Solutions Opening
• 10 U.S.C. §4021: Other Transaction (OT) Research Projects: transactions other than contracts and grants
• 10 U.S.C. §4022: OT Prototype and Production projects
• 10 U.S.C. §4023: Procurement for Experimental Purposes

MDA’s recent(ish) designation on January 21, 2025 as a Federal Laboratory, as authorized under 10 U.S.C. §4023, now gives it access to enter into cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) under 15 U.S.C. §3710a. CRADAs are negotiated non-competitive agreements with broad flexibility in terms of award as they are governed by the contract considerations under sec. 3710a(c) and any agency regulations that may be promulgated to implement the statute. See also, DoD’s Other Transactions Guide.

Challenges Ahead

Although MDA is touting and celebrating its commitment to acquisition streamlining and flexibility for GD, DoD must overcome a significant amount of inertia inherent in its accustomed use of acquisition processes for major defense acquisition programs like the GD. This is indicative of MDA posting a traditional FAR Part 16 multiple award IDIQ draft solicitation right out the gate for GD. This potential acquisition strategy seems to directly contradict the President’s Executive Order 14265, Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in The Defense Industrial Base, issued on April 9, 2025. The E.O. charges the SECDEF to “rapidly reform our antiquated defense acquisition processes with an emphasis on speed, flexibility, and execution.” Within 60 days of the order the SECDEF must submit a plan that utilizes existing authorities “to expedite acquisitions throughout the Department of Defense, including a first preference for commercial solutions and a general preference for Other Transactions Authority, application of Rapid Capabilities Office policies, or any other authorities or pathways to promote streamlined acquisitions under the Adaptative Acquisition Framework.” This is a tall order for the DoD as acquisition reform has been for decades an elusive fantasy for the Department.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) notes in its June 17, 2025 Study that DoD “remains deeply entrenched in a traditional linear acquisition structure—characterized by rigid, sequential processes—that has proven inadequate in adapting to evolving threats and integrating emerging innovation.” According to the study, DoD will spend $2.4 trillion to develop and field 106 of its weapons systems. These systems, on average, take 12 years to reach their initial capability and schedules as funding and performance requirements are approved years in advance. 12-year time frames are obviously incompatible with addressing emerging threats, but most importantly, a 12-year time frame is wholly incompatible with achieving the President’s mandate to achieve initial capability on the Golden Dome for America by the Fall of 2028. For those who are particularly interested in the discussion on DoD Acquisition reform, the American Conference Institute is hosting a free webinar on the subject.

While the Golden Dome for America could represent one of the greatest catalysts for economic growth, job creation for new and existing sectors, talent development and technological innovation especially for Huntsville, but also for the United States, Congress must fund the rest of the investment. And funding the rest of the GD could easily become mired in the election cycle and political stalemates. Without the promise of additional funding, it may be challenging to convince industry to pivot and commit its best and brightest minds and other resources to spur the innovation needed for the GD on the break-neck schedule mandated by the President.

Challenges aside, the Propst Arena remained at near full capacity even after the two and a half hours of Power Point briefings. There seemed to be a palpable willingness in the arena to achieve the near impossible – a knowing (if made manifest) that the Golden Dome for America will be the most significant achievement for this generation.