Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the Pentagon’s policy chief, told senators today that the president’s concept for a “Golden Dome” missile defense for the U.S. is both necessary and possible to achieve.
“I fully support the president’s executive order and the Golden Dome approach,” Colby said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing held to consider his nomination to the position of undersecretary for policy at the Defense Department (DoD).
President Trump on Jan. 27 signed an executive order calling for the development of a new missile defense system, which he initially referred to as the Iron Dome of America, later renamed the Golden Dome of America.
The concept aims to “deploy and maintain a next-generation missile defense shield” to protect against hypersonic weapons and other advanced aerial threats, which the order designates as the “most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”
Colby explained today that the increasing “range, scale, sophistication, and variety of missile and other unmanned threats to the homeland” demands that the U.S. “keep pace,” and emphasized that the Golden Dome would play a key role in addressing this challenge.
Trump’s Golden Dome has been met with some skepticism. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., highlighted both operational and financial challenges in bringing this concept to fruition and asked Colby about “the feasibility of implementing such a concept.”
In response, Colby pointed to technological breakthroughs that could support the development of this next-generation missile defense system but did not provide further details on how these advancements would be implemented. Similarly, the executive order offers limited specifics on the exact requirements for building the Golden Dome, leaving military commands to determine their role in constructing and deploying components of the system.
So far, several defense agencies – including the Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Space Force, and the Space Development Agency – have stepped forward to explore how they can contribute to the development and implementation of the Golden Dome.
Another area of contention – especially among Democratic lawmakers – is the financial strain these efforts could impose. However, according to Colby, recent technological advancements “could really drive down the cost” of developing the Golden Dome, making it a more affordable and viable defense solution.
“Some technological breakthroughs that we’ve seen in areas like drones, unmanned systems, and artificial intelligence, as well as other related fields, could really drive down the cost curve and offer technological capabilities or solutions that would give us a much better bang for our buck,” Colby said.
Despite Colby’s assertion that emerging technological capabilities could alleviate some of the cost concerns related to the Golden Dome, GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate are pushing for at least a $100 billion increase in defense spending over the next decade to support President Trump’s agenda, including the creation of his missile defense system.
In the coming weeks, Defense Secretary Hegseth is expected to deliver a DoD analysis – mandated by the executive order – to identify which existing programs directly support system requirements and where gaps may exist that would require further research and development.
