“They’ve [Iran] already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America. After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions.”
–President Donald J. Trump, State of the Union Address, February 24, 2026.
On the same day, in Denver, Colorado, the three major U.S. Military Combatant Commanders for the defense of the U.S. homeland gathered together and spoke to the importance and credibility of the Golden Dome for America and its leadership by General Michael Guetlein.
“General Guetlein has just been a fantastic partner throughout this, and you know, in his new appointment, leading the Golden Dome efforts. And so we’ve been fully engaged with his office. We have sent liaison officers to sit, In the Pentagon with this team for for months at a time to really make sure we’re as tightly connected as we can be. You know, I would highlight that the president’s executive order on the Golden Dome was incredibly visionary, and it talked about some very specific space based capabilities. talked about improved tracking from space, it also talked about space based interceptors. And. So 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 into other combatant commands as well. Because if you think about some of these modern threats, they’re going to launch in one AOR 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. And for that reason, when the Golden Dome was announced, Northern Command and Space Command joined together and went To the Pentagon and said, ‘Hey, we want to co- write the requirements document for the Golden Dome.’ And we got an instant thumbs up. And, we delivered that on very fast timelines to make sure that General Guetlein understands what it is that we believe in concert with all the other combat commands is needed for this system.”
–General Stephen Whiting, Commander, U.S. SPACECOM
“One being a really good teammate for General Guetlein as he executes that mission. And so those capabilities that I would say are, Unique to our combatant command, as we can team with him, we bring those to the table and integrate with him. And then the other piece is just day-to-day within his organization. Our three combatant commands are actually a part of an executive council that supports him in his role that he’s been tasked by the president to accomplish.”
–Lieutenant General Michael Lutton, Deputy Commander, U.S. STRATCOM
“Like both General Lutton and General Whiting said, we have an incredibly tight relationship with General Guetlein and his team. Like SPACECOM, we’ve also put a liaison officer there to make sure that our command’s perspective is always understood. And you know, General Guetlein just does a great job reaching out to us and making sure that we’re on track. I think it’s important to frame the cooperation by illustrating that as soon as he was confirmed, the next day he flew to Colorado Springs and met with the two of us there with Stephen and myself and I outlined as the supported command for what I thought we needed to get against all those advanced missile threats that I just described a few minutes ago. And the way that I hope that we could approach the problem. And Stephen was there, of course, because so much of it involves space, whether in the detection or ultimately in the defeat. And, the three of us left the room without any exaggeration, one hundred percent aligned on what we thought Golden Dome for America should look like. The timeline, what should be emphasized first, what would be a follow-on capability. And then General Guetlein and his team have remained faithful to that and come back to us. Anytime they’ve had to make a tweak because, you know, for whatever reason, to come back to us and say, this is still fit with what you think we need. And the answer has always been yes. And therefore, I think that we’ll have demonstratable capability much faster than a lot of people think when Golden Dome first was discussed. I think some thought would be a twenty forty years Buck Rogers type of capability, and it’s not. It’s much closer, and a lot of the capabilities are there. And I think Mike Guetlien and his team are doing a great job oftying it together for the homeland defense mission. That’s exactly right, and in fact, As many folks know, so much of an effective golden build architecture, certainly would be about defending the homeland. But I think if we had other combat commanders up here on the stage, when you think about the required sensing network, the data fusion and movement networks, the command and control required to do effective defense of the homeland, but also have greater applicability for our joint forces out in other AORs. So. So Golden Dome is not just about, although it’s certainly key to defense of the homeland. It’s about so much more than that as well. And. So much of that architecture would help for the entire war fighting enterprise of of the United States.”
–General Gregory Guillot, Commander, U.S. NORTHCOM & NORAD
