Enabling Golden Dome’s Smart Buyer Strategy – What It Will Take

Key Factors for Success

To ensure the Smart Buyer approach for Golden Dome delivers on its promise, it must be developed around three core principles:

Interoperability is non-negotiable.

The expeditious proposed timeline for Golden Dome will spur rapid solution development and integration among many vendors. Interoperability must be baked in from day one. A shared Modeling & Simulation (M&S) environment is necessary to allow the government and multiple contractors to quickly integrate various models, software, and hardware; test how they work together; and enable coordinated control and command.

1. Interoperability is non-negotiable.
   • The expeditious proposed timeline for Golden Dome will spur rapid solution development and integration among many vendors. Interoperability must be baked in from day one. A shared Modeling & Simulation (M&S) environment is necessary to allow the government and multiple contractors to quickly integrate various models, software, and hardware; test how they work together; and enable coordinated control and command.
2. The government must own the interface.
   • The Department of Defense (DOD) must retain ownership of the M&S environment to avoid vendor lock-in and ensure an open interface that invites contributions from small, non-traditional, and agile organizations. To further support openness and long-term adaptability, the model-based requirements, design, and architecture must be clearly defined in an authoritative source of truth – enabling future enhancements from a wide range of developers, including NATO allies and coalition partners.
3. A modern, modular framework is critical.
   • Golden Dome marks a bold leap forward – a chance to build something entirely new while standing on the powerful foundation of proven missile defense systems and years of M&S innovation from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Space Systems Command (SSC), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space (PEO MS), and others.
   • While traditional systems focused on rigid, tightly coupled “one threat vs. one radar/interceptor” models, Golden Dome breaks that mold. Its multi-dimensional architecture demands a next-generation, distributed, data-as-as-service approach – one that fuses proven legacy models with a modern, scalable framework built for the multi-domain complexity of today’s battlespace.

This is not just an evolution. It’s a transformation.

Astrion’s M&S Leadership

Golden Dome represents more than just a new missile defense system – it’s a significant test of how quickly and effectively the U.S. can innovate in the face of complex, evolving threats. Success will require not only cutting-edge technologies across multiple domains, but also smart testing and acquisition strategies[JC1]  that guide and accelerate their development with built-in interoperability.

This is where Astrion brings proven value. For more than two decades, well before “model-based” became a buzzword, we have pursued and mastered the most advanced model-based tools and techniques. Working with MDA, SSC, the Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA, we have applied MBSE methods to reduce the time and cost associated with maturing advanced technologies and developing future-ready capabilities.

For example, as a member of the Aegis missile defense government team, we developed, in collaboration with the original engineering manufacturers (OEMs), novel M&S solutions to help fully understand gradual and radical changes in adversary capabilities and adjust our threat characterization tools and methods accordingly.

We also created a simulation environment for MDA and the U.S. Navy that integrates numerous physics and engineering models within a single open framework, enabling seamless threat generation and interoperability across tools developed by multiple contractors and national labs. This reduced DOD programs’ technical, cost, and schedule risks by nearly eliminating previous integration challenges.

Our Smart Buyer approach is system agnostic. As we have done as the prime lead systems integrator for the U.S. Army’s Counter small Unmanned Aerial System (C-sUAS) program, Astrion serves as an honest broker to help customers procure and down select the best, most affordable, cohesive, tailorable, and optimized solutions to meet specific mission needs.

Golden Dome is much more than a missile shield. It’s a call to rethink how DOD innovates. By embracing advanced modeling, simulation, and systems engineering from the start, DOD can reduce risk, accelerate timelines, and make better-informed decisions. With decades of mission-driven and multi-domain experience, Astrion is uniquely positioned to help shape this next chapter in missile defense – bringing vision, execution, and technical depth to the most ambitious defense effort of our time.