Senior officials outline 'Golden Dome' layered missile‑defense plan, warn sensors and production pose near‑term limits

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing, senior defense officials testified that the president—s "Golden Dome for America" executive order directs development of a next‑generation, layered missile‑defense architecture tying space-to-seabed sensors to kinetic and non‑kinetic defeat mechanisms.

The officials said the policy shifts the focus from a narrowly scoped ground‑based ICBM defense toward an integrated system that must detect, track and defeat ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons and advanced cruise missiles. "Missile defenses are a vital element of our strategic force posture," said the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, adding that adversaries are fielding systems across domains.

Golden Dome and the need for better sensors

Gen. Guillot, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), told the committee the architecture under consideration contains three layers: a domain‑awareness layer "from seabed to space," an ICBM defeat layer that largely relies on existing ground‑based interceptors, and an air layer aimed at cruise missiles and other aerial threats. "You can't defeat what you can't see," Guillot said, stressing domain awareness as the top priority.

Officials including Gen. Collins, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and MDA technical…