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Lockheed Martin is designing a space-based missile interceptor and goals to check the know-how for potential integration into President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” protection defend inside the subsequent three years.
The protection contractor revealed this week that it hopes to check a satellite tv for pc defensive weapon able to destroying hypersonic missiles by 2028.
If profitable, this could mark the first time in historical past the US has deployed interceptors in area to destroy enemy missiles earlier than they attain the homeland. Lockheed remains to be weighing completely different applied sciences, starting from lasers to kinetic satellites that might maneuver and strike high-speed targets in flight.
“We’ve missile warning and monitoring satellites made by Lockheed Martin in orbit as we speak that present well timed detection and warning of missile threats,” mentioned Amanda Pound, mission technique and superior capabilities director at Lockheed Martin House, informed Fox Information Digital.
“We’re dedicated to creating space-based interceptors for missile protection a actuality, leveraging our a long time of expertise, investments, and business partnerships, to be prepared for on orbit testing in 2028.”
TRUMP UNVEILS ‘GOLDEN DOME’ MISSILE SHIELD, BLINDSIDES KEY SENATORS
Lockheed Martin is designing a space-based missile interceptor and goals to check the know-how for potential integration into former President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” protection defend inside the subsequent three years. (Lockheed Martin )
Lockheed’s area interceptor venture instantly helps Trump’s “Golden Dome for America” initiative, first unveiled in Could 2025. The formidable missile protection idea requires a international constellation of satellites armed with sensors and interceptors, designed to detect, observe and remove superior missile threats – together with hypersonic and ballistic weapons – earlier than they will strike U.S. soil.
The concept echoes President Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Strategic Protection Initiative, typically dubbed “Star Wars,” which was dismissed on the time as science fiction. However as we speak, the applied sciences as soon as seen as far-fetched are quickly advancing, in keeping with protection leaders.
Gen. Michael Guetlein, appointed by the Trump administration to go Golden Dome, emphasised that key parts of the system exist already, expressing confidence in reaching a test-ready platform by 2028. Nonetheless, it’s no straightforward feat.
“Intercepting a missile in orbit is a fairly depraved onerous downside physics‑sensible,” mentioned Jeff Schrader, vp of Lockheed’s area division. “However not not possible,” he added, noting breakthroughs in maneuverability and steering techniques.
Analysts warning that to make the Golden Dome imaginative and prescient a actuality, the U.S. could must launch hundreds of interceptors into orbit. Some have in contrast it to the Chilly Conflict–period “Sensible Pebbles” program, which proposed the same space-based missile defend however was ultimately shelved as a consequence of skyrocketing prices and technical hurdles.
The Trump administration desires Golden Dome to be accomplished earlier than the president leaves workplace. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
Golden Dome is at the moment projected to value $175 billion, with $25 billion already authorized by Congress. However long-term estimates vary wherever from $161 billion to over $830 billion over twenty years – elevating questions on this system’s affordability and long-term sustainability.
TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN DOME’ WILL NEED MANHATTAN PROJECT-SCALE WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT EFFORT, SPACE FORCE GENERAL WARNS
In the meantime, Lockheed is bolstering ground-based missile protection techniques to enhance the orbital layer. In March 2025, the corporate’s Aegis Fight System aboard the USS Pinckney efficiently simulated the interception of hypersonic medium-range missiles through the FTX-40 train, codenamed Stellar Banshee.
The corporate can be advancing infrared seeker know-how for interceptors, which might improve the monitoring and concentrating on of fast-moving missiles of their terminal part.
Lockheed hopes to include space-based missile interceptors into Golden Dome. (Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed stays a central participant within the Pentagon’s broader missile protection and hypersonic weapons growth effort. It’s the prime contractor for the Subsequent Era Interceptor (NGI), which is concentrating on an preliminary working functionality by the finish of fiscal yr 2028.
Concurrently, the corporate is fulfilling Navy contracts for its Standard Immediate Strike (CPS) hypersonic weapons system. Sea-based deployment of CPS is anticipated to start between 2027 and 2028.
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President Trump has publicly said he desires Golden Dome operational by the top of his time period. However business officers warn that provide chain limitations and the Pentagon’s slow-moving procurement system make full deployment by 2029 unlikely.
