Golden Dome

Golden Dome is the United States' conceptual framework for a layered national missile and counter-drone defence architecture, encompassing space-based sensors, directed-energy systems, and kinetic interceptors. The FY2026 Pentagon budget allocated $24.4 billion for missile defence, including a $10 billion increase specifically targeting Golden Dome's acceleration.

The initiative gained operational relevance during Iran's drone campaign from February 2026, when 4,446 drones and 1,725 missiles were launched against US allies in the Gulf. Golden Dome's integration with JIATF-401 was confirmed in March 2026, with JIATF-401 set to share counter-drone data with the national missile defence architecture for Group 3 and larger unmanned systems. Lattice, Anduril's AI command platform, is JIATF-401's designated Counter-UAS backbone.

Anduril's Space-Based Interceptor team — named on 5 May 2026 as Impulse Space, Inversion Space, K2 Space, Sandia National Laboratories, and Voyager Technologies — sits inside the $3.2 billion Space Force OTA pool awarded to twelve companies, targeting an integrated boost-phase intercept capability inside Golden Dome by approximately 2028. Sandia National Laboratories' involvement routes boost-phase intercept physics through Anduril's prime contract rather than through Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, breaking a three-decade procurement pattern. The European parallel is emerging: Helsing and OHB formed a joint venture in May 2026 to develop AI-based space reconnaissance and targeting, implicitly framing a European Golden Dome equivalent. Golden Dome represents the Pentagon's attempt to close the gap between missile defence designed for ballistic threats and the mass-drone tactics demonstrated by Iran, Russia, and Houthi forces — now extended to include a space intercept layer for the boost phase.