Space Force general to oversee U.S. 'Golden Dome' missile shield
July 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate has approved Gen. Mike Guetlein to oversee President Donald Trump's national missile defense system, known as the Golden Dome.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that Guetlein had cleared the final hurdle to leading the Office of Golden Dome for America, which will work with industry, higher education, national labs and other government agencies to develop the high-tech missile shield.
The Golden Dome is similar to Israel's "Iron Dome" and is intended to modernize the United States' defenses from threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. The missile shield will be designed for ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other large-scale attacks.
Guetlein is currently a Space Force general who serves as vice chief of space operations for the military service branch.
Testifying to Congress in March, Guetlein compared the complexity of developing the Golden Dome to that of the Manhattan Project, a World War II-era initiative that produced the world's first nuclear weapons.
"It is not complex because of technology; it is complex because of the number of organizations and agencies that need to be involved," he told a Senate Senate Armed Services subcommittee.
Building the Golden Dome will require cooperation between multiple government agencies, as well as private industry, he said. Guetlein described differences in organizational behavior and culture as the project's biggest challenges, which he said can be overcome by having an empowered and well-resourced agency in charge that has the support of policymakers.
The Golden Dome project is expected to cost $175 billion and Trump has previously said it will be "fully operational" by the end of his term.
The GOP-backed major tax and spending bill recently signed by Trump includes nearly $25 billion for the Golden Dome. Defense contractors are optimistic it will boost profits.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin on Tuesday reported $18.2 billion in second-quarter sales and predicted more growth as the Golden Dome Project progresses.
Speaking during an earnings call Tuesday, Jim Taiclet, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, said the company has already developed missile defense systems that "are the exact solutions needed to make Golden Dome for America a reality."
Taiclet added that the company's exact role in the Golden Dome project remains to be seen because "the plan on the government side isn't laid out yet."
Chris Calio, chairman and CEO of RTX Corp., also expressed optimism that the project would bolster the company's bottom line during an earnings call Tuesday, saying it "is really well aligned with our core capabilities and product portfolio."
The effectiveness of Israel's Iron Dome has been on display after it successfully shielded the country from hundreds of missiles launched by Iran.
Trump administration officials say the Golden Dome will fulfill former President Ronald Reagan's vision of a "Star Wars" system that was never completed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously said that technology has now advanced enough to build the expansive missile shield envisioned by Reagan.
The United States has missile defense systems in place already, but they would not be able to defend against a large-scale attack from Russia, China, Iran or North Korea.
Patrycja Bazylczyk, program manager and research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project, previously told UPI that the Golden Dome project could reorient the United States' defense for an era of "great power competition."
"Our adversaries China and Russia have next-generation weapons that can threaten the U.S. homeland," Bazylczyk said. "We need to prime our defenses to defend against these next generation threats."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
21 minutes ago
- Politico
Elon Musk gave the GOP $10M while he was fighting with Trump
Musk, who spent $290 million of his own money to boost Trump and other Republicans last year, led the cost-cutting efforts of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in the first few months of the Trump administration. When he left that role in May, he also suggested he was done with political giving for the time being: 'If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don't currently see a reason,' he said at the Qatar Economic Forum. He then engaged in a harsh public fight with Trump in June amid the push to pass the president's signature budget bill, breaking with the president and, later, the GOP. Musk's donations to CLF and SLF were enough to make him the largest known individual donor to the main House and Senate GOP super PACs so far this year, although they reflect only a fraction of the money both raised. Congressional Leadership Fund brought in $32.7 million in the first half of the year, while Senate Leadership Fund raised $26.4 million. A spokesperson for the Congressional Leadership Fund said it does not comment on donors. Senate Leadership Fund and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Musk also poured another $45 million of his own money into his super PAC, America PAC, this spring. That group spent primarily on Wisconsin's Supreme Court race in April, which Musk was heavily involved in publicly. Its expenses included $27 million for petition incentives, $12.7 million on campaigning related to the Wisconsin race and three controversial $1 million payments to spokespeople selected for signing Musk's petition opposing 'activist judges.' Musk's preferred candidate in that Wisconsin race, conservative Brad Schimel, lost by 10 points in what was widely seen as a sign of Musk's electoral drag on Republicans. In July, Musk said he would create his own political party, the America Party. But Thursday's FEC filings, which cover only through the end of June, provide no insight into what that effort might look like.
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why the proposed Texas congressional map may not be a lock to net five new GOP seats
The proposed overhaul of Texas' congressional map is, as demanded by President Donald Trump, designed to give the GOP five new seats in next year's midterm election. But while the newly drafted lines would all but assure Republicans at least some pickups, an analysis of the tentative redistricting plan suggests the GOP is far from guaranteed to net all five seats. The map, for one, relies on census data from 2020 in a state with a rapidly growing population and demographics that are poised to continue changing in the years to come. And while the five reconfigured districts would have been firmly for Trump if they'd been in place last year, other recent statewide races would have been far more competitive — especially in the midterm years of 2018 and 2022, when Democrat Beto O'Rourke would have carried or narrowly lost some of the new districts in his runs against Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. Still, the proposal presented few, if any, opportunities for Democrats to flip the script by targeting Republican districts — a possibility even some GOP incumbents were girding for ahead of the draft map's release. The mid-decade redistricting effort is coming at the behest of Trump's political operatives, who pressured state leaders to redraw the Texas map to help pad Republicans' razor-thin majority in the U.S. House. The proposed map targets Democrats in South Texas and around Dallas, Houston and Central Texas. And it does so without seriously jeopardizing any of the 25 districts Republicans already control, dampening the hopes of Democrats who had hoped an aggressive gerrymander could backfire on the GOP and create opportunities to oust a few sitting Republicans, particularly in a Trump midterm election year when the national climate is expected to favor Democrats. 'I don't see any Democratic silver linings here at all,' Odus Evbagharu, the Texas Democratic Party treasurer, said. He argued that the new district lines would suppress the power of voters of color, adding, 'From day one, this redistricting process has been a mess. It's been broken, it's in shambles.' Still, while the map would pave the way for the GOP to control up to 30 of the state's 38 congressional districts, the two seats in South Texas appear to be firmly in play for Democratic incumbents Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen, both of whom were reelected last year even as Trump carried their districts. The map drawers made those districts just a shade redder, in what amounts to a gamble that the party's recent historic gains among Hispanic voters — who dominate the electorate in both districts — will stick. Retaining the three other targeted seats would be a far bigger reach for Democrats, though experts said some could be in play in a strong Democratic year. That trio of blue districts includes the 9th Congressional District in Houston, held by Rep. Al Green; the 32nd District in Dallas and its northern suburbs, represented by freshman Rep. Julie Johnson; and the 35th District, which runs from San Antonio to Austin, held by Rep. Greg Casar. Each went for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by large margins last year and, under the newly proposed lines, would have favored Trump by at least 10 points. Johnson's district would become untouchable for Democrats, picking up several new bright red counties east of Dallas. Had the new lines been in place for past elections, statewide Republicans would have carried the district even under the most favorable Democratic wave years, such as in 2018, when the district would have gone for Cruz by about 9 percentage points over O'Rourke. The margins were less pronounced in Casar's newly configured 35th District, which Cruz would have carried by three-tenths of a point in 2018, and Green's 9th District, which would have gone for O'Rourke by 2 percentage points under the new lines. All three Democrats condemned the proposed map, with Johnson calling it a 'corrupt, racist power grab' that was made to 'rig the game for Donald Trump.' Before the draft map was released, Democratic groups pledged millions of dollars to recruit candidates and support their campaigns. House Majority PAC, which works to elect House Democrats, announced a $20 million fund for Texas, while House Majority Forward — a nonprofit affiliated with the PAC — spent money on ads in a handful of GOP districts in apparent anticipation that those seats would become more competitive under a new map. The plan did not appear to leave any room for Democratic pickups. While many Republican incumbents had reliably red voters shifted out of their districts, the map was crafted so that every existing GOP district would have voted for Trump by at least 15 percentage points. 'There's no Republican in Congress who has been hung out to dry by this map, so given that, it looks like there is some significant upside for Republicans,' Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said. 'It would take a pretty big blue wave in 2026 to imperil any of the Republican incumbents.' With their prospects otherwise bleak, Democrats are hopeful that Cuellar and Gonzalez could hang on by continuing to buck trends at the top of the ticket. Gonzalez was also the victim of GOP redistricting efforts in 2021, when state lawmakers approved new maps that tilted the 15th Congressional District — a longtime Democratic seat Gonzalez represented at the time — in favor of the GOP. Gonzalez jumped ship to run in the neighboring 34th District in 2022, which he has represented ever since. That seat, which currently stretches from Brownsville up the state's southeastern coast to Kingsville, followed the trend that swept South Texas in 2024, with Trump carrying the district by more than 4 percentage points. Gonzalez narrowly won reelection by 2.6 percentage points. The split-ticket voting was even more pronounced in Cuellar's district, where the so-called King of Laredo — an anti-abortion Democrat seen as one of his party's most moderate members in Congress — overcame a federal indictment and Trump's 7-point advantage in his district to win reelection by more than 5 points. If Cuellar, who is scheduled to go to trial on the bribery and money laundering charges in September, can escape his legal woes, operatives and analysts rate the district as a potential tossup. 'He's an incredible performer, given how much the district has changed,' said Kyle Kondik, an election analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, while noting Cuellar's legal baggage. Under the new lines, Trump would have carried both Gonzalez and Cuellar's districts by about 10 percentage points. In a midterm election, which usually sees lower rates of voter turnout and typically punishes the party in power, experts say both have a shot at holding their seats. Gonzalez's path may be more difficult. Under the proposed map, his district would lose familiar territory in Hidalgo County and take on more right-leaning voters in Nueces County. In a statement, Gonzalez pledged to fight the new map electorally and in court, but he acknowledged the difficulty of defending a more GOP-friendly district. 'The newly proposed TX-34, under the Republicans' outrageously gerrymandered map, is a blatant Trump-rigged district,' he said. 'When they know they can't win, they cheat!' Cuellar, meanwhile, lost voters in the San Antonio region but took back a portion of Hidalgo County that he once represented under previous maps. Democrats have a recent history of success under the new boundaries: Democrat Joe Biden would have won it by almost 10 points in 2020, and O'Rourke by a whopping 32 points in the 2018 Senate race. The district's electoral history is evidence of how rapidly Latino voters in South Texas have shifted to the right. But Cuellar, a Laredo institution, has routinely withstood that trend. A spokesperson for his campaign was much more muted than other Texas Democrats in a statement — and listed a host of conservative-coded issues that speak to why Cuellar has been able to win over Trump voters. 'Rep. Cuellar understands the communities that he represents and they trust his experience delivering results,' the spokesperson said. 'He looks forward to continuing to serve the people of South Texas in Congress and advancing the issues that matter most to them — including strengthening border security, protecting American oil and gas, securing resources for rural communities and supporting farmers and ranchers.' Disclosure: Southern Methodist University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Axios
44 minutes ago
- Axios
Fox acquires one-third interest in IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Fox Corporation, the broadcast giant, has acquired one-third interest in Penske Entertainment, the owner of the IndyCar racing series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Why it matters: It's unclear what the deal means for the iconic speedway that's part of the fabric of our city and a major economic driver for the region. Driving the news: The deal was announced in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, which estimated the price to be between $125 million and $135 million. In addition to the stake in the series track, the deal includes a multi-year extension of IndyCar's media rights with Fox Sports that was set to run through 2027. Flashback: Tony Hulman famously brought the track back from the brink of closure when he bought it in 1945 after it had fallen into disrepair during World War II, and his family stewarded it until 2019 when Roger Penske bought it. Penske has invested millions over the last few years to upgrade the fan experience at IMS, paving large swaths of the grounds, adding more viewing mounds and video boards and updating the scoring pylon. The intrigue: The track itself was hardly mentioned in the media release sent from IndyCar and IMS' joint public relations team or the WSJ article Thursday. The last line of the article mentions that Fox Sports chief executive Eric Shanks said "Fox will now look beyond television production and work with Penske on new events, more sponsorship opportunities and boosting attendance at the track." When we asked a representative at IMS what this meant for IMS, which hosts dozens of events throughout the year in addition to the Indy 500 and other races, they declined an interview and pointed us back to the WSJ article. What we're watching: Even when Penske bought the track and pledged it would "run like a business now," it was being run by someone who grew up loving racing and the 500.
