Overview

• Pentagon officials tried to suppress Golden Dome discussions at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville by banning it from the general agenda and moving it to a closed session.
• Leaked Reuters slides outline a space-based sensing and targeting layer plus three ground layers of interceptors, radar arrays and potential lasers, and reveal plans for a new Midwest missile field.
• Lockheed Martin executives warn that the 2028 operational deadline provides a very short timeline to address unproven boost-phase intercept technologies, heat-resistant reentry targeting and communications latency across integrated layers.
• Pentagon planners have scheduled a major system test for the fourth quarter of 2028, positioning it just before the presidential election and highlighting political and technical pressures.
• Canada’s defense ministry has removed legal and policy hurdles to join Golden Dome, marking the first formal move by a foreign partner toward contributing to the program’s development.