US-/NATO-Raketenabwehrsystem in Europa

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Lockheed Martin aims to test a missile-killing satellite by 2028

Amanda Pound, the advanced programs development director at Lockheed Martin, told reporters Monday at the company’s facility here that it is pursuing a variety of missile-killing satellite ideas, from lasers to satellites that turn into projectiles and maneuver toward hard-to-hit missiles.

“The goal is by 2028 to field an on-orbit demonstration of a space-based interceptor,” she said. “We have the capability to do that. We're ready to support.”

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2 ... 28/407212/

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Exclusive: Pentagon Golden Dome to have 4-layer defense system, slides show

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 025-08-12/

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In diesem Video sieht man eine ca. zwei Sekunden kurze Sequenz mit einem "Space-based Interceptor":

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US expands Golden Dome cost estimate to $185 billion, enlists top defense firms

The price tag for the Golden Dome missile ​defense shield has grown to $185 billion, up $10 billion, to accelerate key space-based ‌capabilities, the program's director said on Tuesday, adding that Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab, RTX (RTX.N), opens new tab and Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), opens new tab have joined as prime contractors.

"We ⁠were asked to accelerate some space capabilities," Golden Dome's manager, Space Force General Michael ​Guetlein, told the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Arlington, Virginia. He identified three programs that ​would benefit from the additional funding: the Advanced Missile Tracking Initiative, a space data network, and the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, known as HBTSS.

The $185 ⁠billion figure covers what Guetlein called the "objective architecture," a full-capability system to be delivered over the next decade.

Guetlein rejected outside estimates that have placed the program's potential cost above $1 trillion, arguing those figures are based on applying expensive, self-contained battlefield systems designed for overseas ​combat to a homeland ​defense mission that ⁠requires a fundamentally different and cheaper approach.

"They're not estimating what I'm building," Guetlein said.

Guetlein called the command-and-control system Golden Dome's "secret sauce." He ​described a nine-company consortium that began as a self-formed group of ​six firms ⁠before Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman joined as prime partners.

The consortium briefs Guetlein every Thursday evening and can vote underperforming members out of the group.

The general identified space-based interceptors ⁠as the ​program's highest-risk element, citing scalability and affordability as the ​central challenge. He said directed energy weapons and next-generation artificial intelligence represent the most promising technologies for driving ​down cost-per-kill and increasing magazine depth.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 026-03-17/

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Space-based interceptors make even less sense now

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2026/0 ... ow/411153/

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Golden Dome Leader Questions Feasibility Of Space-Based Interceptors

Space-based interceptors are no longer an intrinsic component of the Golden Dome program. A proliferated constellation of orbital, rocket-fired missiles is still being considered, but they are unnecessary if the defense industry is not ready to deliver them for an affordable price.

U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, who is in charge of the $185 billion Golden Dome program, now refers conditionally to the prospect of fielding a space-based layer of interceptors, which would be aimed at shooting down missiles during their vulnerable boost phase.

“If boost-phase [intercept] from space is not affordable and scalable, we will not produce it because we have other options to get after it,” Guetlein told lawmakers during an April 15 House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing. That remark reflects a change in tone.

When President Donald Trump signed the executive order that launched the Golden Dome program a week after taking office in January 2025, the document emphasized that space-based interceptors “shall” be included in the architecture. The executive order extended interest in an orbital defensive system into Trump’s second term of office. During the first term, the 2019 Missile Defense Review directed the Space Development Agency to study options for fielding a constellation of space-based interceptors.

To be sure, space-based interceptors are still under consideration. The Space Force Space Combat Power Program Executive Office identified 12 companies on April 24 that were selected to compete for contracts worth up to $3.2 billion on space interceptors. Those include traditional defense and space contractors—Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and SpaceX—as well as several nontraditional suppliers, including Anduril, Gitai USA, Quindar, SciTec, True Anomaly and Turion Space.

In the near term, budget documents show that they will be working on enabling technologies, not the space-based interceptors themselves. The $1.39 billion requested by the Pentagon for “space-based interceptors” in the fiscal 2027 budget would be spent on the Space Data Network - Space Link. “This funding will support the adoption of a commercially derived radio-frequency payload and prototypes for integration onto multiple planes of space vehicles,” state Space Force budget justification documents released on April 27.

But the government’s program manager is not convinced they are ready to deliver. “What we do not know today is, ‘Can I do it at scale, and can I do it affordably?’ That’s going to be the huge challenge for boost-phase intercept,” Guetlein told lawmakers.

That approach appears to acknowledge concerns about the affordability of a space-based interceptor layer. Many external analysts expect the technology would work. But the costs of scaling up a constellation to be effective could be enormous.

What has not changed is the sprawling ambition of the Golden Dome program. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 27, Marc Berkowitz, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, reaffirmed that the architecture is not limited to defending a select number of population centers, military sites and critical infrastructure. The goal is to defend the entire homeland from all air and missile threats, ranging from one-way attack drones to fractional orbital bombardment systems. “The Golden Dome will protect our homeland, citizens, critical infrastructure and second strike capability,” Berkowitz said.

Other technologies, such as strategic-level directed energy weapons, might need to be developed to make that vision a reality.

“We have built the foundation of Golden Dome upon a scalable, modular architecture using affordable elements and taking advantage of competition innovation from industry to deliver those elements, and we have scaled it so that is multilayered and integrated,” Guetlein said at the April 27 hearing. “If any component of the architecture cannot deliver on time, we have pathways to pivot away from that and embrace a different technology.”

https://aviationweek.com/defense/missil ... terceptors