NATIONAL HARBOR, September 18 — The Golden Dome homeland missile defense program is moving from concept toward an operational capability as early as summer 2028, according to Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the program’s director. Guetlein spoke during a panel at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference titled “Defending the Homeland: Making Golden Dome a Reality.” He was joined by Sen. Deb Fischer, chair of the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and Gen. Gregory M.
Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command. Retired Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton moderated the discussion.
An integration problem, not a clean-sheet build
Rather than building an entirely new defensive system from scratch, leaders described Golden Dome as an integration challenge: bringing together existing capabilities, adding new technology where necessary, and connecting everything through a common command-and-control architecture. Guetlein characterized that integration as an organizational challenge as much as a technical one. Systems across the Department of Defense, he noted, were often built for different missions and different customers — not necessarily to operate together against a single homeland defense problem.
Golden Dome is attempting to change that by integrating capabilities horizontally across the department and other agencies. The threat environment has changed, Guillot said, describing a homeland defense landscape that now stretches from unmanned aircraft systems and cruise missiles to ballistic missile threats.
Instead of operators working across numerous independent command-and-control systems, the goal is an integrated approach that allows them to see and respond to different types of threats through a common system. The architecture is deliberately layered, Guillot said, designed to create overlap between defensive layers rather than leave seams an adversary could exploit. Space is particularly important — not simply as another defensive layer, but because space-based capabilities can help provide information to the other layers and give decision-makers the information they need as threats evolve.
AI as a decision aid, not a replacement
That integration problem gets harder as the volume and variety of incoming threats increase. Guillot said artificial intelligence will be important because operators could eventually face multiple threats and multiple defensive options simultaneously. Rather than removing humans from the process, he described AI as a way to give operators information and options quickly enough to make decisions in a much more complicated threat environment.
Guetlein similarly emphasized using technology to accelerate decision-making. AI, he said, can help sensors and radars characterize what operators are seeing and present better information faster, reducing the time humans need to work through each step manually.
He stressed that automation does not have to be an all-or-nothing proposition, and that the level of automation could scale as the operational tempo increases.
Affordability, scale, and the industrial base
For the defense industrial base, that creates a significant opportunity. Guetlein said affordability and scalability were established as objectives from the beginning. Instead of relying exclusively on highly exquisite and expensive systems, Golden Dome needs capabilities that can be produced and fielded at scale.
He also pointed directly to industry engagement, saying he has met individually with companies to present the problems Golden Dome needs to solve and hear their ideas. The result is a program that could depend as much on integration, software, sensors, command and control, AI and scalable manufacturing as it does on any single interceptor or weapons platform.
Congress will still have a major role in determining how quickly Golden Dome moves forward. Fischer said there is “still a lot of work that has to be done,” even as she pointed to bipartisan support for the effort. What to watch next: whether the integration architecture and the industrial-base work keep pace with a timeline that now points to an operational capability within roughly two years.
