The United States has successfully tracked a ballistic missile using Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) that could one day become a sensor in the Golden Dome for America defense shield.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said the LRDR at Clear Space Force Station in Alaska “acquired, tracked and reported missile target data” to the Command and Control Battle Management and Communications system (C2BMC). “This was the radar’s first flight test tracking a live Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) representative target,” the MDA said in June 2025 news release.
The LRDR was built as part of the existing Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system (GMD), which is designed to increase the effectiveness of interceptors in Alaska and California that are on standby to shoot down incoming missiles launched by Iran or North Korea, according to a June 2025 Reuters story. The LRDR is installed inside a facility nearly five stories tall and was placed in central Alaska because of its vantage point over the Indo-Pacific, according to a 2021 story by the Anchorage Daily News newspaper.
The MDA performed the test in cooperation with the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). The undertaking, named Flight Test Other-26a (FTX-26a), used an air-launched target that “flew over 2,000 kilometers off the southern coast of Alaska where it was tracked by LRDR as well as the Upgraded Early Warning Radar located at Clear Space Force Station. Sensor data was passed to [GMD] to support a simulated engagement,” according to the news release.
The Lockheed Martin-developed radar will provide USNORTHCOM and the USSF with the ability to “precisely track ballistic missile threats as well as other space objects, advancing our ability to deter adversaries and bolster our homeland missile defense,” according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, the MDA’s director.
The MDA said initial indications showed that all systems during FTX-26a met mission requirements. The agency will continue to evaluate data from the test, which will “support the operational assessment of LRDR [and] validation of LRDR modeling and simulations,” according to the news release.
“This was a key test in the development of the LRDR system and its integration into the C2BMC network,” Collins said.
Once fully operational, the LRDR will be able to “simultaneously search and track multiple small objects, including all classes of ballistic missiles at long ranges under continuous operation and will be tied into the GMD [fire control] system and the C2BMC system,” according to the website Defense News. The LRDR will also support space-domain awareness by monitoring activity such as satellites and orbital debris, Defense News said.
The LRDR’s open architecture will also allow for the integration of emerging technologies and software, according to Rick Cordaro, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Radar and Sensor Systems. One of those future capabilities could include detection of hypersonic missiles.
“Deterrence begins with detection,” Cordaro said, “and the successful FTX-26a demonstration underscored LRDR’s ability to detect and track threats at extended ranges, while accurately distinguishing between targets and nontargets.”