Golden Dome Webinar Series: Sensing Modalities

Projected to cost anywhere from $175 billion to $500B+, the Golden Dome missile defense initiative will be among the most expensive and most complex system in the Department of Defense.  Golden Dome aims to create an integrated network of sensors (satellites, air based, sea based and ground based), perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and enable the intercept of evolving air and missile threats. Golden Dome is envisioned to protect the entire United States from ballistic and   cruise missiles, as well as drone swarms, and potentially enemy aircraft.  Several countries, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, have been developing missiles and other airborne threats over the past few years that challenge the United States’ current integrated air and missile defense capabilities. Such a defense system requires a global array of geographically distributed sensors – deployed on a variety of platforms on the ground, at sea, in the air, and in space – that cover all phases of all missile trajectories. Golden Dome is intended to both leverage existing missile defense systems and identify new technologies that will help achieve the operational requirement of 100% homeland protection in three years.
 
The National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute is hosting a four-part webinar series focused on the following topics: sensing modalities, command and control, weapons, and implementation. There are three goals for each webinar:

• Understand the operational requirements of the Golden Dome initiative, and the maturity of an architecture for bringing the Golden Dome System to life,
• Evaluate the current technological approach to United States integrated air and missile defense to determine where emerging capabilities are needed, and          
• Describe potential implementation considerations to ensure that operational needs are met and taxpayer money is effectively used.