GOLDEN DOME Act of 2025
The GOLDEN DOME Act of 2025 would create a comprehensive, next‑generation homeland missile defense architecture called the Golden Dome. It envisions a layered, integrated system spanning land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace, with a strong emphasis on rapid development, testing, and fielding of both kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities. A central feature is the establishment of a Golden Dome Direct Report Program Manager (a high-ranking military officer under the Secretary of Defense) who would have broad, streamlined authority over acquisition, development, testing, and initial operations of Golden Dome, including funding, contracting, and liaison with Congress. The bill also accelerates space sensor capabilities, space-based intercepts, glide-phase defense, advanced PNT (positioning, navigation, timing), autonomous defense concepts, and flexible, mobile defense sites. It directs rapid, ongoing testing (including live-fire exercises) and requires annual reporting on regulatory barriers to rapid testing. Additional provisions push for heightened space industrial-base competition, expanded authority to protect U.S. assets from incursions (including unmanned aircraft), and a broad set of modernization efforts across terrestrial radar, space sensors, and munitions production. In short, the bill seeks to dramatically accelerate and integrate diverse defenses against ballistic, cruise, hypersonic, and unmanned threats, while prioritizing space sensing, open architectures, commercial solutions where practicable, and rapid decision-making and fielding.
Key Points
- 1Establishment of the Golden Dome: A holistic, cross-domain missile defense architecture to deter and defeat air and missile threats, with a centralized Golden Dome Direct Report Program Manager responsible for acquisition, development, testing, and initial operations, reporting to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and under the Joint Chiefs of Staff hierarchy.
- 2Aggressive modernization and fielding timeline: Plans to accelerate space sensors (including at least 40 Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor space vehicles by December 1, 2025), accelerate Next Generation Interceptors (up to 80 at Fort Greely with testing/fielding by January 1, 2028), expand Alaska Aegis Ashore deployment, accelerate ground-mobile interceptors and radars, and advance glide-phase interceptors to counter hypersonic threats.
- 3Expanded testing and transparency requirements: A robust testing regime for kinetic and nonkinetic systems, including a demanding cadence beginning within 540 days of enactment, mandatory end-to-end exercises, semiannual live-fire tests, and required participation from multiple defense and interagency actors; annual reporting on regulations that hinder rapid testing.
- 4Non-kinetic and information fusion emphasis: Accelerate development of non-kinetic capabilities (cyber, EW, directed energy, AI-driven battle management, etc.) and a software-centric information fusion platform using AI/ML to provide cross-domain awareness and faster decision-making.
- 5Space and industrial-base competition: Strengthen space acquisitions to maximize competition and interoperability, require open competition for mission-critical space-based data delivery systems, and avoid arrangements that would overly contract out space capabilities if they threaten the space industrial base.
- 6Protection of U.S. assets from incursions: Rewrite and expand authorities under 10 U.S.C. 130i to empower combatant commands and other DoD leadership to mitigate unmanned aircraft threats, including remote identification and other counter-UAS approaches, with certain legal disclosures exempted.
- 7Funding and authorization flexibilities: Provisions for expedited military construction and waivers of certain regulations to speed Golden Dome construction, with limited judicial review for constitutional claims; authorizes cross-agency collaboration and prioritizes decision requests to accelerate planning and execution.
- 8Broad program scope across domains: The act covers space-based sensors and interceptors, terrestrial radar modernization, undersea surveillance, air and space sensor integration, resilient PNT, autonomous defense agents, low-cost interceptors, and munitions production, all aligned to a single, integrated defense architecture.