MDA Partnership with Space Force for Golden Dome

Since my MDA’s LinkedIn post about the Mis­sile Defense Agency (MDA) sparked a con­ver­sa­tion, it also led to a larg­er dis­cus­sion about the MDA part­ner­ship between the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and U.S. Space Com­mand (USSPACECOM). For the Gold­en Dome for Amer­i­ca ini­tia­tive, the Mis­sile Defense Agency (MDA) would like­ly part­ner with both USSF and USSPACECOM, but for dif­fer­ent rea­sons based on their dis­tinct roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties. Here’s how the part­ner­ships would align:

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MDA Part­ner­ship with Space Force

Why Space Force?

• Capa­bil­i­ty Devel­op­ment: The Space Force is respon­si­ble for orga­niz­ing, train­ing, and equip­ping space forces, which includes devel­op­ing and main­tain­ing space-based assets, such as satel­lites, sen­sors, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion systems.
• Tech­nol­o­gy Inte­gra­tion: The Space Force would pro­vide the nec­es­sary infra­struc­ture and exper­tise to inte­grate space-based sen­sors and com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems into the Gold­en Dome architecture.
• Space-Based Inter­cep­tors (SBI): If Gold­en Dome includes space-based inter­cep­tors, the Space Force would like­ly play a cru­cial role in oper­at­ing and main­tain­ing these sys­tems once they are deployed.

 

Key Areas of Collaboration:

1. Satel­lite Operations:
   • Space Force oper­ates mis­sile warn­ing satel­lites and oth­er space-based sen­sors that would feed data into Gold­en Dome’s com­mand and con­trol systems.
2. Space Domain Awareness:
   • The Space Force tracks objects in space, ensur­ing the safe­ty and func­tion­al­i­ty of the Gold­en Dome’s space-based assets.
3. Research and Development:
   • The Space Force could col­lab­o­rate with MDA on advanced tech­nolo­gies, such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), machine learn­ing (ML), and dig­i­tal engi­neer­ing, for space-based systems.

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MDA Part­ner­ship with Space Command

Why Space Command?

• Oper­a­tional Exe­cu­tion: Space Com­mand is tasked with plan­ning and exe­cut­ing mil­i­tary oper­a­tions in the space domain, which includes mis­sile warn­ing, mis­sile defense, and space-based operations.
• Mul­ti-Domain Inte­gra­tion: Space Com­mand ensures the inte­gra­tion of space capa­bil­i­ties into joint oper­a­tions across all domains, includ­ing land, sea, air, cyber, and space.
• Defen­sive Oper­a­tions: Space Com­mand would over­see the oper­a­tional use of Gold­en Dome’s space-based assets to detect, track, and inter­cept threats.

 

Key Areas of Collaboration:

1. Mis­sile Warn­ing and Tracking:
   • Space Com­mand would use data from space-based sen­sors (oper­at­ed by Space Force) to pro­vide real-time mis­sile warn­ing and track­ing for Gold­en Dome.
2. Com­mand and Con­trol (C2):
   • Space Com­mand would inte­grate Gold­en Dome’s space-based capa­bil­i­ties into broad­er mis­sile defense oper­a­tions, ensur­ing seam­less coor­di­na­tion with oth­er com­bat­ant com­mands, such as U.S. North­ern Com­mand (NORTHCOM) and U.S. Indo-Pacif­ic Com­mand (INDOPACOM).
3. Oper­a­tional Defense:
   • Space Com­mand would over­see the day-to-day oper­a­tions of Gold­en Dome’s space-based assets, ensur­ing they are ready to respond to threats.

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How MDA, Space Force, and Space Com­mand Work Together

MDA’s Role:

• Devel­ops and tests Gold­en Dome sys­tems, includ­ing inter­cep­tors, sen­sors, and com­mand and con­trol infrastructure.
• Trans­fers mature sys­tems to oper­a­tional enti­ties (e.g., Space Force or Space Command).

Space Force’s Role:

• Pro­vides the space-based infra­struc­ture (satel­lites, sen­sors, com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems) need­ed for Gold­en Dome.
• Oper­ates and main­tains space-based assets once fielded.

Space Com­mand’s Role:

• Uses the capa­bil­i­ties pro­vid­ed by Space Force and MDA to con­duct real-time operations.
• Inte­grates Gold­en Dome into mul­ti-domain oper­a­tions and coor­di­nates with oth­er com­bat­ant commands.

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Exam­ple Sce­nario: Gold­en Dome in Action

1. Space Force Contribution:
   • Oper­ates mis­sile warn­ing satel­lites that detect a bal­lis­tic mis­sile launch.
   • Pro­vides track­ing data to Gold­en Dome’s com­mand and con­trol system.
2. MDA Con­tri­bu­tion:
   • Devel­ops the inter­cep­tor sys­tem that is launched to neu­tral­ize the threat.
   • Pro­vides the inte­grat­ed archi­tec­ture that con­nects sen­sors to shooters.
3. Space Com­mand Contribution:
   • Exe­cutes the oper­a­tional response, coor­di­nat­ing with oth­er com­bat­ant com­mands to ensure the mis­sile is inter­cept­ed and the threat neutralized.

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Con­clu­sion

MDA would part­ner with Space Force for capa­bil­i­ty devel­op­ment and infra­struc­ture, and with Space Com­mand for oper­a­tional exe­cu­tion. Both part­ner­ships are essen­tial for the suc­cess of Gold­en Dome, as it requires:

• Space Force’s exper­tise in build­ing and main­tain­ing space-based assets.
• Space Com­mand’s exper­tise in using those assets to con­duct real-time operations.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion ensures that Gold­en Dome can pro­vide a lay­ered defense against threats across all domains—land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.

For the BD/Capture Audience

The SHIELD is going to an $151B IDIQ, and the GOLDEN DOME, as of yet, has not got­ten a dol­lar amount assigned; I am going to bet that the GOLDEN DOME will fall under SHIELD, along with oth­er Space Force and MDA oppor­tu­ni­ties.  For the Fed­er­al Ser­vice Inte­gra­tor (FSI) com­mu­ni­ty, many of you align your MDA efforts to the 4^th Estate Book of Busi­ness ver­sus Space. Let’s start part­ner­ing Account Exec­u­tives togeth­er and treat­ing it as one Book of Business.

June 4, 2025

Posted in Thoughts.