3 March, 2025
The Trump administration’s ambitious missile defense initiative dubbed “Golden Dome” is triggering a flurry of activity across the aerospace and defense sectors as companies jockey for position in what could become one of the Pentagon’s largest procurement programs.
“There’s a clear signal from the government that they want to tap into commercial innovations for Golden Dome,” Matt Magaña, president of Voyager Technologies’ defense and national security business, told SpaceNews.
The program, initially called “Iron Dome for America” before being renamed Golden Dome, aims to shield the U.S. from an evolving array of aerial threats — ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles among them. The system’s architecture builds on existing Pentagon systems designed to counter tactical and intercontinental ballistic missiles, but seeks more advanced ground-based defenses for terminal-phase interception, space sensors for tracking launches and space-based interceptors to strike missiles in their boost phase.
Last month, hundreds of industry executives descended on Huntsville, Alabama, for a Missile Defense Agency briefing outlining the Pentagon’s implementation plans for the executive order establishing the program.
