The Pentagon has officially rebranded President Donald Trump’s proposed homeland missile defense shield from “Iron Dome for America” to “Golden Dome.”
In a video released on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth referred to the project as “the Golden Dome or Iron Dome.” Shortly after, a defense official confirmed to Defense One that the initiative’s name has been officially changed to “Golden Dome.”
The initiative, first outlined in Trump’s January 27 executive order, aims to create an advanced missile defense architecture capable of intercepting a wide range of threats, including hypersonic missiles.
The order emphasizes several space-based components of this architecture, including the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program and the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman confirmed that the service will play a “central role” in the Pentagon’s efforts to develop a homeland missile defense shield.
According to Saltzman, a team from the Space Force is already evaluating its current systems to support the president’s order and determine which elements of existing defense systems can be integrated into the Golden Dome initiative. The team is expected to complete its initial analysis within weeks, according to reports.