The US Golden Dome's orbital layer, combining space-based sensors and interceptors to detect and destroy ballistic and hypersonic missiles before they reach US territory.
Finite inventories of air-defence interceptor missiles, depleted by the 2025 Iran-Israel war, face a multi-year US, Israeli, and NATO rebuild against accelerating demand.
The US space-and-radar network that detects missile launches within seconds, giving leaders 25 minutes or less to decide how to respond to a nuclear attack.
The US Space Force, established December 2019, is the youngest US military branch, protecting GPS, missile warning, and orbital infrastructure against Chinese and Russian counterspace threats.
Hegseth says a directed-energy system autonomously detected and killed multiple drone and cruise-missile threats in the program's inaugural live test
12 firms hold $3.2B in SBI work; a new $4.16B contract and Northrop-Apex push a 2028 integration target
Space Force picks 12 firms for space-based interceptors as estimates swing from $175B to $3.6T
SM-6 funding leaps to over $8.5B and a terminated SM-3 line is restored, but full depth won't return before 2028