Fischer Makes the Case for Golden Dome During Subcommittee Hearing

WASHINGTON - Today,U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, convened a hearing for an update on Golden Dome, the multi-layer missile defense system being developed for the United States.

Click here to download video of Fischer's opening remarks

Watch the full hearing here

The committee heard testimony from the following witnesses:

• The Honorable David J. Trachtenberg, senior scholar, National Institute for Public Policy
• Dr. Thomas O. Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Mr. David E. Mosher, director of National Security Analysis, Congressional Budget Office

Fischer's remarks as prepared :

Good afternoon and welcome to our witnesses who are joining us to discuss outside perspectives on Golden Dome for America.

Our homeland is not a sanctuary. Our adversaries are developing and fielding long-range capabilities specifically designed to challenge and evade the limited defenses currently deployed.

These include cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, and large drones - threats that fall below the threshold of a full nuclear attack, yet could still provide devastating damage to our ports, critical infrastructure, and military installations.

We do not have an effective counter to these threats, and we cannot afford to remain complacent. Our adversaries must never believe that they can coerce us with the threat of a limited, conventional missile attack on the United States. Which is why this subcommittee has been clear for years - on a bipartisan basis - that the United States needs a more comprehensive integrated air and missile defense system.

This administration has supercharged these efforts. The Department [of War] is finally prioritizing homeland defense, has requested the resources needed to rapidly develop and field new systems, and has granted General Guetlein with all the authorities necessary to realize this vision as the Direct Reporting Program Manager for Golden Dome for America. I greatly appreciate General Guetlein's close communication with this committee, and I'm confident that he's building out an architecture that will provide the United States with much better coverage against a greater variety of threats.

He's committed to working with industry to lower costs, explore innovative ideas, and deliver capability as quickly as possible. Golden Dome completed its first successful test in June, and I look forward to hearing about future tests when our committee will be formally briefed in November.

Most of the details of the architecture are highly classified, and rightly so. We do not want our adversaries to know the exact contours of Golden Dome. Unfortunately, keeping these details from the public has led to irresponsible speculation - often based on false assumptions - about what Golden Dome will look like and what it will cost the taxpayer.

Mr. Mosher, I understand that CBO's [Congressional Budget Office] cost estimate released earlier this year was underpinned by assumptions CBO made based solely on the limited language from President Trump's Executive Order and does not reflect any of General Guetlein's subsequent decisions about the overall program architecture, his engagements with industry to lower 'cost-per-shot', or how he plans to sequence the introduction of capability over time and leverage emerging technologies. I look forward to continued engagements with CBO on more informed analyses in the future.

However, there is plenty we can talk about in this setting, and I look forward to hearing from the expert witnesses today about their views on what the Department should prioritize in Golden Dome.

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