Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed Sept. 14 the Space Force has “space control weapons” on orbit today—the Pentagon’s most direct acknowledgement to date that the U.S. is operating offensive capabilities in space.
space-based interceptors
While Pentagon officials have revealed some details about the architecture behind the Golden Dome missile defense project, crafting an independent cost estimate for a largely classified program remains a challenge, experts said Aug. 19.
Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the director of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program, warned that without the Defense Department’s $350 billion reconciliation request, the homeland missile defense effort is in dire straits.
A Congressional Budget Office estimate that pegs the 20-year cost of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program at $1.2 trillion dollars is based on inaccurate assumptions about the advanced missile shield’s architecture, according to the general in charge of the project.
The Space Force has awarded 20 contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to 12 companies since last year to develop space-based interceptor capabilities, Space Systems Command announced April 24, providing new details on the firms involved and the scope of their work.
The Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub, plans to demonstrate low-cost, commercially derived missile defense sensors on orbit within the next two years, according to a new notice to industry.
The Pentagon’s Golden Dome Director said Jan. 23 his top priorities for the advanced homeland missile defense shield over the next two years are establishing a baseline command-and-control capability and integrating interceptors into that system.
The Space Force is requesting prototype proposals for space-based interceptors that can destroy a missile during the midcourse phase of flight, on top of its previous efforts to develop interceptors that take down missiles in their boost phase.
The Space Force has awarded initial prototype contracts to multiple firms to develop space-based interceptors designed to take down missile threats within minutes after launch.
Satellite manufacturer Apex announced it would launch a space-based interceptor demonstration next summer—the latest company to unveil plans to prototype technology that could contribute to the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense project.
Industry proposals were initially due Oct. 10, but after a flurry of responses, the agency extended the deadline to Oct. 16. MDA received more than 1,500 questions from companies over the last three weeks, it said in an Oct. 2 memo.
Industry executives poised to compete for the Pentagon’s behemoth homeland missile defense initiative, Golden Dome, said the biggest risk to the project’s success is not technical but bureaucratic in nature.