Layered Defense, Orbital Advantage

Space is no longer a supporting player. It has become a core enabler of America’s multi-layered missile defense strategy and a decisive factor in shaping future defense capabilities. 

Historically, space has played a vital supporting role for terrestrial activities, providing critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), sensing and communications. Now, space serves as a crucial sensor and connector - offering advanced early warning and tracking capabilities in what we now consider a warfighting domain.

Golden Dome for America - a comprehensive, multi-layered integrated air and missile defense concept spanning seabed to space - marks the end of space as a supporting domain and ushers in an era of integrated, scalable, combat-proven defense capabilities for all domains. 

Each orbital layer tells a different part of the story, but together, with Lockheed Martin’s combat-proven expertise to support priority missions, they script the future of space superiority. 

Space Layer – First Line of Threat Detection

By continuously monitoring airborne threats to deliver sensing and early warning, the space layer gives the warfighter the most valuable asset in modern defense – time.

Programs like the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and its successor, the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared GEO (NGG), provide critical early warning of missile launches and persistent long-range tracking of emerging threats, giving America’s forces more time and information to be able to choose the next step.  

Enhancing this layered defense approach, Lockheed Martin is supporting the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) – a plan for a resilient constellation of hundreds of satellites – providing persistent surveillance and tracking of real-time threats as they emerge.  

Supported by space-based Airborne Moving Target Indication (AMTI) and over-the-horizon (OTH) radars, the space layer plays a critical role in maintaining situational awareness and strengthening the nation’s ability to respond at speed.  

"...the space layer gives the warfighter the most valuable asset in modern defense – time"

Strategic Intercept Layer – Missile Defeat

Once a threat is detected and tracked, defeating it before impact is critical. The strategic intercept layer targets threats in their midcourse phase, in both the endo and exo-atmosphere, before they can reach American soil or allied territories.

This layer is anchored by advanced systems such as the MDA’s Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD), using the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) and the future Next Generation Interceptor (NGI). 

NGI replaces aging unitary GBIs with greater reliability, agility and precision. NGI leverages mature technologies within a layered defense architecture of space sensors, radars and command-and-control systems to strengthen national deterrence. NGI also delivers a substantial increase in kill capacity through multiple kill vehicles and leverages decades of investment in strategic missions and space system technologies to enhance accuracy and survivability. 

Underlayer – Regional and Theater Defense

Deterrence begins with detection, and the underlayer is where the regional and theater-level defense comes to life, combining advanced radars, interceptors and directed energy systems to protect forward-deployed forces and critical infrastructure. This layer relies on orbital intelligence to extend detection range and sharpen targeting precision.

Radar systems form the foundation of this detection architecture. Fielded and future-ready systems like the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), TPY-6, TPY-4 and Sentinel A4 deliver scalable, networked, high-fidelity sensing - critical for identifying and tracking complex, maneuvering threats.

THAAD and PAC-3 MSE are proven capabilities that continue to demonstrate real-world combat effectiveness against stressing threats in Europe and the Middle East. Additional efforts are in progress to integrate these capabilities with advanced sensors like the Sentinel A4 and TPY-6 to extend range and precision. Plans are also underway with the U.S. Navy to integrate PAC-3 MSE with Aegis. 

As adversaries seek to erode our military advantage, the F-35's ability to combine battlefield intelligence and technology – and share it instantaneously across every domain – gives it an overwhelming edge in capability unmatched by any alternative.  The F-35 securely shares critical targeting information and coordinates firepower from both manned aircraft and combat drones to dominate the modern battlespace. 

Directed energy solutions, like the U.S. Army’s IFPC-HEL and the U.S. Navy’s HELIOS are designed to be modular – deployable across sea, land and air – and combined with existing defense platforms.

Together, these capabilities strengthen the underlayer as a critical component of the broader missile defense architecture, connecting ground-based action with space-based detection and strategic defense.

Command and Control Architecture – C2BMC

The Command and Control (C2) layer ensures threat data is shared rapidly and accurately between systems, facilitating effective and efficient response to emerging threats. Space-based sensors are foundational to command and control, delivering the early detection and global reach needed to fuse data, accelerate decision-making and enable coordinated defense.

Systems like the Missile Defense Agency’s Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system, one of the first battle management systems to integrate across domains, is doing this mission now. Lockheed Martin leads the national team supporting C2BMC which is supporting layered missile defense and saving lives 24/7, 365 days a year around the world. 

The Advantage Belongs to Those who Adapt

A fully integrated, layered air and missile defense relies on the seamless connection between terrestrial and space-based assets, working together to create a resilient, adaptive shield that protects the nation from evolving threats across all domains. If we fall short in space now, we risk falling short against an array of multi-domain threats in the future. 

With decades of mission experience, proven advanced technologies already in orbit and a deep understanding of layered air and missile defense, Lockheed Martin stands ready to deliver the integrated capabilities essential to America’s Golden Dome, advancing 21st Century Security® and ensuring dominance ahead of tomorrow’s multi-domain threats.