NORTHCOM, NORAD urge sensor modernization and warn spectrum sale could undermine missile‑defense plans
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Summary
Commanders testified that layered, all‑domain sensing is essential to homeland defense, raised hypersonic and undersea detection needs, and warned that selling or repurposing spectrum used by DOD radars would jeopardize planned systems including the administration’s proposed national missile shield.
House committee members and DOD leaders discussed long‑range air and missile threats, the department's sensor modernization plans and concerns about spectrum policy.
General Greg Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, told the panel that modernizing NORAD and NORTHCOM sensors is essential and warned that proposed auctions or sales of spectrum used by military radars would jeopardize detection and tracking. "Almost all the systems that we use for homeland defense, rely on that part of the spectrum that's being considered to be either sold or shared," Guillot said. Later in the hearing he specified the physics constraint that makes roughly the 3–3.5 gigahertz range particularly valuable for combining range and fidelity in radar tracking.
Rafael Leonardo referenced a next‑generation missile shield called the "Golden Dome for America" as an administration priority, and witnesses described layered domain awareness as necessary "because we can't defeat what we can't see." Commanders told the committee they are pursuing airborne moving target indicator satellites, over‑the‑horizon radars, E‑7 Wedgetail aircraft and integrated undersea surveillance as building blocks for improved early warning and tracking.
The panel also emphasized evolving threats. Guillot and witnesses highlighted hypersonic weapons as a rapidly evolving challenge because of their speed and maneuverability and said space and sensor investments such as the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) would be important to detection. NORAD/NORTHCOM officials said undersea detection needs have increased because of expanded submarine activity by Russia and China and called for improved undersea sensors.
Ending note: commanders framed modernization and spectrum access as immediate priorities for homeland defense. They urged Congress to consider capabilities across undersea, air and space domains and to avoid reassigning spectrum critical to radar and early‑warning systems.