Shawn Barnes, Space Force Association Board of Directors and Founder of Polaris Strategic Solutions, delivers remarks during the “Golden Dome for America” event hosted by Threat Status on May 13, 2025, at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City, in Arlington, Va.
Let me talk for just a moment about what I see in the executive order that the president signed on January 27th, and folks had pointed out that indeed it was signed on January 27th, which really means that President Trump had been thinking about this, and the administration behind him had been thinking about this for quite some time. This is not a snap decision on their part.
But a couple of interesting points, I thought. First the capability is meant to enhance deterrence, not replace it, right? And there’s a couple of elements of deterrents. One element of deterrent is to make sure that the adversary decides not to do something because they believe that the punishment would be so great for their action that they won’t do it.
The other side of the deterrents is that their action will not be effective. And so the Golden Dome is about that second part, that action not being effective, and we haven’t had that for a long time.
It will include both space-based and terrestrial-based components. The capability will include kinetic and non-kinetic elements. The capability will be designed to defeat threats prior to launch, as well as threats in their boost and terminal phases.
So think about what that might mean prior to launch and how we might get about that.
The Secretary of Defense is directed to determine opportunities for allied participation. And I think that that’s going to be critically important as we move forward.
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