Lockheed Martin has set up a prototyping center for evaluating available technologies to be incorporated into the Golden Dome Command and Control (C2) capability. Drawing on the capabilities of its Center for Innovation in Suffolk, Va., the C2 prototyping hub will connect sensors, firing systems, and platforms from all combat domains, “from seabed to space,” according to Lockheed.
Conceptually similar to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense, the Golden Dome for America is foreseen as a more advanced and expansive system to protect the U.S. from aerial threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and advanced cruise missiles. The project is being coordinated by the U.S. Space Force and expected to stage major tests in Q4 2028.
Prototyping is underway at Lockheed’s Center for Innovation, aka The Lighthouse, where actual capabilities are being tested against current and future threat scenarios. Those capabilities include threat evaluation, battle management, mission planning tools, sensor tasking, AI/ML integration and optimization, joint planning, data link sharing and more.
The Lighthouse center is equipped to conduct realistic exercises across multiple classification levels; models and simulations; wargames, Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) experimentation; complex, tailored demonstrations; tabletop exercises; and analytical workshops.
According to Lockheed, the C2 capabilities will integrate data from various sensors and coordinate direct responses, for example, interceptor launches, while also allowing “cyber-resilient” communication and synchronized decision-making across domains by combining reliable, multi-source data.
“This rapid C2 prototyping effort is one among many within Lockheed Martin demonstrating how we can support the U.S. Government as a Golden Dome for America mission partner,” stated Lockheed’s Daniel Nimblett, vice president of layered homeland defense. “Through a series of demonstrations, we’ll fuse existing C2 capabilities from across industry and government into a scalable baseline that delivers real-time situational awareness and enables informed decision-making to defend the nation. This phased approach reduces risk and delivers capabilities early by accelerating integration, reducing redesigns, and lowering lifecycle costs.”
“Golden Dome for America is a challenge unlike anything attempted at this scale or on this timeline, and we’re moving fast to bring together connected C2 capabilities that work now,” stated Golden Dome C2 project director Thad Beckert. “This prototyping approach is a novel method to provide evolutionary capability for an unprecedented effort. This environment offers the government the ability to experiment and exercise with technologies that weren’t originally built to work together and make them operate cohesively.”
