House strategic forces hearing presses DOD on ‘Golden Dome’ reference architecture, spectrum needs for homeland defense

At a House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing, witnesses and members pressed the Department of Defense for details on the Administration's "Golden Dome" concept for homeland defense and on related studies ordered by the White House.

The discussion centered on how to build a layered defensive architecture to detect and defeat incoming threats, how the "Golden Dome" reference architecture under study will affect strategic stability, and whether the DOD can retain essential spectrum needed for detection, tracking and satellite communications.

The issue drew bipartisan attention because the executive order directing an "Iron Dome for America" study directed the secretary of defense to provide a reference architecture to the president. John Hill, who is performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, told the committee that the study produced a reference architecture for the president to consider but declined to detail recommendations that remain between the secretary and the president: "that'll be for the secretary and the…