GOP senators introduce Golden Dome Act to counter Iranian missile threats

EXCLUSIVE – With the Iran situation intensifying, senators will put forward a bill Tuesday that creates the “Golden Dome” missile defense system modeled off Israel’s Iron Dome that President Donald Trump asked for at the beginning of his term.

Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., came together to craft the Ground & Orbital Launched Defeat of Emergent Nuclear Destruction and Other Missile Engagements (Golden Dome) Act, a $21 billion congressional authorization split among more than two dozen individual defensive strategies.

It comes after Trump ordered in January that a defense system be realized in response to the “threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks.” Trump later confirmed his plan to seek construction of the Golden Dome at a May White House appearance with Sullivan.

“The escalating missile threats we’ve witnessed from the Iranian terrorist regime and the rapidly evolving hypersonic, cruise missile and drone threats from Russia, China, and other adversaries demonstrate why we need to develop a robust, modernized missile defense system to protect the entire country—which the Golden Dome Act will do,” Sullivan told Digital.

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“The three prongs of successful policy in D.C. are presidential leadership, appropriated funding and comprehensive authorizing legislation.”

Trump’s order cited former President Ronald Reagan’s so-called “Star Wars” plan to build laser-based nuclear defense systems against the Soviet Union, while Sullivan and Cramer took a big step Tuesday toward creating something even more comprehensive.

Similar to “Star Wars,” the Golden Dome plan calls for the development and deployment of space-based weapons sensors, as well as research into another orbital component, Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

Sullivan’s state of Alaska is home to some of North America’s most important extant defense systems, particularly at Clear Space Force Base near Fairbanks and Fort Greely in Delta Junction.

The latter is home to Alaska Army National Guard members who provide “operational control and security for the nation’s ground-based interceptors,” according to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. There are about 80 interceptors at-the-ready at Fort Greely.

The Golden Dome plan builds on such defenses, by creating, maintaining and/or revitalizing other sites as well, including the Cobra Dane – a land-based “passive electronically scanned array” radar system positioned in the Aleutian Chain.

“Alaska is a big part of [missile defense] because the location is sort of perfect,” Trump said. As both the easternmost and westernmost state in the union, Alaska is also the commercial and defensive gateway to Asia, state officials have noted.

Specifics of the Golden Dome Act would focus first on present situations the U.S. can respond to in the near-term, including upgrading systems and replenishing munitions short-in-supply like PAC-3 “Patriot” missiles.

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The second piece of the puzzle is forward-looking, according to a source familiar with the effort, focusing on technologies like space-based interceptors and air-moving-target indicators — capabilities the U.S. has yet to fully master.

Some assets for use in any China-Taiwan contingency are already in Alaska, foreshadowing that the components of the Golden Dome would be subject to a robust testing regime.

The Golden Dome would also include a battle-management system, allowing Trump or a future commander in chief to have visibility and the panoply of options at his fingertips if an attack on the U.S. surfaces.

The Golden Dome would also include the AEGIS Ashore missile range in Kauai, Hawaii, and, in Cramer’s state, the Perimeter Acquisition Radar System at Cavalier Space Force Base.

Additional mobile launch systems would be created across the country, as well as an “early warning” radar installation to be developed somewhere in the South.

“The GOLDEN DOME Act increases our national security by enhancing all-domain awareness — eyes and ears upon which any missile-defense architecture relies; bolstering missile and drone defeat capacity to meet the peer and near-peer threat; and accelerating new capabilities to the force to counter future threats to the homeland,” Sullivan and Cramer’s plan read.

“Despite this increasing threat, United States homeland missile defense policy has been severely limited to staying ahead of rogue nation threats and accidental or unauthorized missile launches.”

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Cramer, whose state was subject to suspicious Chinese land purchases near a sensitive military base, said U.S. adversaries’ weapons tech has advanced, so the U.S.’ defense should stay ahead of them.

“We have to act in order to defend against the evolving and complex threat landscape. Senator Sullivan and I introduced the GOLDEN DOME Act to build a layered missile defense system, which protects our homeland from catastrophic attacks from modern missiles,” Cramer said.

Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Ind., who will lead companion legislation in the House, added that the U.S. “must stand ready to prevent nuclear weapons from harming our citizens.”