Lockheed Martin has created a prototyping hub for the development of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome. The Golden Dome for America Command and Control (C2) capability is considered critical for integrating data from sensors and vital to “interceptor launches,” the defense contractor explained.
“This rapid C2 prototyping effort is one among many within Lockheed Martin demonstrating how we can support the US Government as a Golden Dome for America mission partner,” Daniel Nimblett, the Vice President of Layered Homeland Defense at Lockheed Martin, said in a statement. “Through a series of demonstrations, we’ll fuse existing C2 capabilities from across industry and government into a scalable baseline that delivers real-time situational awareness and enables informed decision-making to defend the nation. This phased approach reduces risk and delivers capabilities early by accelerating integration, reducing redesigns, and lowering lifecycle costs.”
Thad Beckert, Golden Dome C2 director at Lockheed Martin, said the dome’s development is a challenge “unlike anything attempted at this scale or on this timeline, and we’re moving fast to bring together connected C2 capabilities that work now.” Beckert described the prototyping approach as a “novel method” intended to offer the government the “ability to experiment and exercise with technologies that weren’t originally built to work together and make them operate cohesively.”
The protyping is being done at the company’s Center for Innovation facility in Suffolk, Virginia, also known as “The Lighthouse.” The facility is able to engage in “realistic exercises at multiple classification levels,” modeling, wargaming, virtual experimentation, worskhips, tabletop exercises, among other capabilities.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo directing the Army to implement changes supporting the Golden Dome’s development. “[T]he Army must prioritize investments in accordance with the Administration’s strategy, ensuring existing resources are prioritized to improve long-range precision fires, air and missile defense including through the Golden Dome for America, cyber, electronic warfare, and counter-space capabilities,” the memo read.
China has condemned the Golden Dome, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Nin claiming the project will “heighten the risk of turning space into a war zone and creating a space arms race, and shake the international security and arms control system.”
“We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying global anti-missile system,” Mao said.
