WASHINGTON – The Pentagon quietly has the ambitious national rocket defense initiative of the Trump administration of “Iron Dome for America” to “Golden Dome for America”, according to a recent advice for defense contractors.
The name change came to light when Minister of Defense Pete Hegseeth, while discussing programs that were protected against potential cutbacks, called the system “Golden Dome of Iron Dome” in a recent video tackling the efforts of the Pentagon to identify $ 50 billion in cost savings in the budget of 2026.
What initially seemed to be a verbal slip has now been confirmed as an official change in the program name. “Please note: the Ministry of Defense has renamed this program from ‘Iron Dome for America’ to ‘Golden Dome for America’,” the American rocket defense agency in an advice of 24 February told contractors who submit proposals in response to a request for information.
The notification, which was sent only a few days before the submission period of 28 February, indicated that the agency would maintain its original file systems despite the change: “Since the RFI will close in less than a week, our Dropboxes and other related items such as” Iron Dome for America “would remain.”
Neither the Ministry of Defense nor the Missile Defense Agency responded to questions about the reasoning behind the name change.
The Publication Defense News suggested that a possible explanation could possibly be on trademark problems, because “Iron Dome” is a registered trademark that is owned by the Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which developed the existing Iron Dome Systy system and the Usrael AeroPile.
The program comes from President Donald Trump’s January 27 -Executive Order in which the planning was initiated for what was then called ‘The Iron Dome for America’. The order has established the development of a rocket department of the next generation as national policy, which quoted threats of ballist, hypersonic and cruise missiles.
Although inspired by the Iron Dome Air Defense system from Israel, the American version is designed to work on a much larger scale and to protect the entire American territory against advanced rocket threats. Space -based sensors have been identified as critical components, in which the executive order specifically instructs the Ministry of Defense to explore a possible deployment of space -based interceptors who would launch in response to an attack.
The Missile Defense Agency is leading efforts to collaborate with partners of the Defense industry to assess technological capacities, whereby the US Space Force is expected to play a central role in view of the dependence on the system of space technologies.
The name change comes when HegseTh progresses with broader budget reinsions, asking military services and agencies to identify $ 50 billion in potential cuts that can be diverted to other defense priorities, while certain critical programs are protected – including the newly renamed Golden Dome.
Leave a Reply