As the Golden Dome for America missile defense initiative enters development building on existing infrastructure, defense leaders are working to ensure new platforms integrate with the commands’ systems. Leaders from U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) and U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), speaking at a February 2026 aerospace symposium, said they are working closely with the program’s manager, U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein.
“We want to make sure that those capabilities, as they come online, can nest right into our overall command and control system, but more importantly that those command and control systems can nest well with NORTHCOM and to other combatant commands as well,” U.S. Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of USSPACECOM, said at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado. “Because if you think about some of these modern threats, they’re going to launch in one [area of responsibility] combatant command, transit through space, and then ultimately NORTHCOM is going to have a huge role to help defend the American people from those threats. And all of that is going to have to work incredibly tightly together.”
Golden Dome will integrate ground-, air- and space-based assets to counter ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats. The United States Department of War plans a constellation of orbiting satellites for early detection and real-time tracking and interception of missiles — a key differentiator from existing U.S. missile defense systems.
“The teamwork and the integration and the site pictures that we have there, I think, is critical,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Lutton, Deputy Commander of USSTRATCOM. “That’s also true of our SSBN [ballistic missile submarine] force when they’re going from the dock to the dive point, going out to sea, it’s working together as joint teammates to ensure that they can be effective and get out to sea or get the weapons out to the launch facility to get those sorties on alert and deter potential adversaries.”
Cooperation among the commands is more important than ever in an increasingly complicated geopolitical landscape, said U.S. Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander of USNORTHCOM. “Today, we face four or more legitimate threats to the homeland from all avenues of approach and in all domains,” he said. “The cyber threat is the most persistent and present threat that we have. I’m often asked when doing congressional testimony, ‘What’s our next attack going to be?’ And I say, ‘We are under attack right this very second in cyber’ … on not just our networks but on space comms and trans-comms and everybody else’s as well.”
“The commands have sent liaison officers to sit in the Pentagon with [Gen. Guetlein’s] team for months at a time to really make sure we’re as tightly connected as we can be,” Gen. Whiting said.