Defense technology companies AeroVironment and SNC announced a strategic partnership this week aimed at building an integrated, adaptable air and missile defense system to support President Trump’s Golden Dome for America.
In a joint statement Thursday, AV and SNC praised the Trump administration’s Golden Dome initiative, saying that a layered and comprehensive missile defense system is the U.S.’s best chance against next-generation threats.
“The Trump Administration understands what has been a long-held belief within the defense industry — there is an immediate and critical need for a layered system that provides a last line of defense to protect America against current threats and next-generation aerial attacks from near-peer and rogue nations,” said Wahid Nawabi, AV chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Together, AV and SNC can rapidly provide novel and affordable defensive solutions, ensuring unmatched limited area ’under-dome’ protection for critical U.S. infrastructure.”
Mr. Trump’s Golden Dome plan has become the defensive centerpiece of his second term. The project envisions building a massive advanced missile defense shield that can easily detect and destroy conventional ballistic missiles while also eliminating next-generation threats such as hypersonic missiles and drone swarms.
The companies said their efforts on Golden Dome will first focus on building layered defenses around specific, limited-area targets such as military bases, airfields and critical infrastructure. Those areas will eventually be expanded, the companies said, with the help of advanced space-based sensors.
“AV and SNC are integrating and aligning existing, open architecture solutions using passive and active sensing, radio frequency, directed energy, kinetic energy, electronic warfare and cyber solutions, addressing the complete kill chain to neutralize group 1-4 unmanned aerial systems (UAS), advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation aerial threats,” AV and SNC wrote in a statement.
SNC’s sister company, Sierra Space, will also join the effort to address potential synergies and investigate critical Golden Dome challenges.
The Senate confirmed Gen. Michael Guetlein to head up the Golden Dome project on July 17 after Mr. Trump tapped him for the job earlier this year. The project also secured around $13 billion in funding on the same day, a far cry from Mr. Trump’s estimated cost of $175 billion. The president has also promised that the Golden Dome will be completed in three years, or near the end of his term.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.