The Golden Dome will employ advanced ground-based interceptors, space-based missiles, laser guns and cyberattacks to defend against potential Chinese and Russian threats to the U.S., according to new details disclosed by defense and military officials.
The current national U.S. missile defense network is limited and incapable of effectively countering attacks from Chinese or Russian hypersonic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, the officials told a Senate hearing.
Mounting threats include growing numbers of sophisticated intercontinental-range ballistic missiles deployed by China and Russia, along with hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other aerial threats that can defeat current defenses, officials disclosed Monday.
Marc J. Berkowitz, assistant defense secretary for space policy, testified Tuesday that Golden Dome will augment U.S. strategic nuclear deterrent weapons.
“We are in a very complex and dangerous security environment where our rivals have dramatically expanded their missile and aerial arsenals,” Mr. Berkowitz told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.
“The threat they pose, whether nuclear armed or even conventional, are truly grave threats to our homeland, to the American population, to our critical infrastructures and to our second strike capability,” he said, referring to the ability of nuclear missiles, bombers and submarines to conduct attacks after an initial strategic attack.
Mr. Berkowitz said current ground-based missile defenses using interceptors in Alaska and California are very limited and designed to stop a few North Korean ICBMs, and currently there are no defenses against both hypersonic and advanced cruise missiles.
Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, director of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program, also said current nationwide missile defenses are limited and need to be upgraded.
“Golden Dome is designed to go after the next generation aerial threats which includes unmanned aerial systems against our homeland, cruise missiles, hypersonic and maneuvering hypersonic missiles, as well as ballistics from the air and ballistics from the sea,” Gen. Guetlein said.
The cost of the system is projected to be $185 billion, and the program seeks to field the first elements by mid-2028, he said.
Missile defense of the American mainland in the past focused on rogue nation threats, the four-star general said.
But new technology is undercutting the advantage of a geographically isolated United States protected by two vast oceans.
Strike capabilities from China and Russia have rapidly improved — and both countries are developing the technology for orbiting nuclear strike systems, called fractional orbital bombardment systems, he said.
“So Golden Dome is protecting for both conventional threats that we see unfolding on television every day, as well as nuclear-capable threats that could be brought against the homeland,” he said.
Asked how many unmanned aerial vehicles China has that are capable of attacking the U.S., Gen. Guetlein said complete numbers are secret, but the range is from “several hundred to several tens of thousands,” depending on the type of UAV threat.
Mr. Berkowitz said China remains the most significant threat and its military modernization has been both rapid and comprehensive with new nuclear and missile forces that can strike U.S. territory and forces from “multiple vectors.”
China also has built network systems designed to track and engage mobile military forces in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
Sen. Angus King, Maine independent, asked during the hearing why a new defense shield is needed now against China when for 70 years no similar defenses were needed for threats from the Soviet Union and Russia.
“Why won’t deterrence work with China if it worked for 80 years with the Russians?” Mr. King asked.
Mr. Berkowitz said the strategic environment since the end of the Cold War has changed dramatically with the United States no longer facing a single monolithic threat.
Current dangers emanate from multiple nuclear rivals armed with increasingly sophisticated missile and aerial threats, he said.
“I believe that strategic stability cannot be based on U.S. societal vulnerability to assured retaliation,” Mr. Berkowitz said.
Current enemy powers do not accept the idea that societal vulnerability produces stability, and both Russia and China along with other actors have long pursued integrated air and missile defense systems, he said.
Those nations’ objections to U.S. missile defenses are not about preserving strategic stability, Mr. Berkowitz said. They are seeking a weakening or constraining of American defense capabilities that would “complicate their ability to use coercive threats or to attack the United States,” he said.
Beijing and Moscow have opposed the Golden Dome program by insisting that U.S. vulnerability to attack is stabilizing while simultaneously rejecting such vulnerability for their states, he said.
“The Golden Dome is intended to be a complement to our nuclear deterrent because in conjunction with our nuclear triad, a homeland missile defense capability will provide the U.S. with both a sword and a shield that will have a synergistic benefit to strengthen deterrence,” Mr. Berkowitz said.
“And should deterrence fail, it will provide a means to protect the territorial integrity of the nation and the lives of our citizens.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.