The United States’ Golden Dome missile defense initiative has entered a pivotal stage, with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) soliciting proposals for what could become the world’s most technologically advanced homeland defense system.
The MDA has opened bidding for the multiple-award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract, a 10-year, $151 billion plan to field a network of interceptors, satellites and sensors to protect the U.S. and its Allies and Partners, the Reuters news agency reported.
The SHIELD framework will allow the U.S. military to issue rapid task orders to contractors, rather than holding separate competitions for each requirement.
The Golden Dome draws inspiration from Israel’s Iron Dome homeland missile defense shield but on a vast scale. The U.S. defense system will integrate ground-, air- and space-based assets to counter ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats. The Department of War plans a constellation of orbiting satellites for early detection and real-time tracking of missiles — a key differentiator from existing U.S. missile defense systems.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in May 2025.
U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, who is leading the initiative, has completed a blueprint for the program, Bloomberg news reported in September 2025.
“I think the real technical challenge will be building of the space-based interceptor,” he said at a space industry summit in July 2025, according to CNN. “That technology exists … I believe we have proven every element of the physics, that we can make it work.”
The first major test of the Golden Dome is targeted for late 2028.
Technical progress has been promising. The U.S. successfully tracked a ballistic missile using the Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) at Clear Space Force Station in Alaska, which could become a Golden Dome sensor. “This was the radar’s first flight test tracking a live Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) representative target,” the MDA said in June 2025.
The LRDR is part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, which is designed to increase the effectiveness of interceptors in Alaska and California to shoot down missiles launched by Iran or North Korea, according to Reuters.
The U.S. also demonstrated the use of a satellite to track hypersonic missiles, a potentially key component for the Golden Dome’s orbital shield. The MDA confirmed that a U.S.-developed Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellite met performance targets in tests, the SpaceNews website reported in April 2025.
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