{"id":1974,"date":"2026-02-14T08:04:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:18:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:18:45","slug":"us-army-eyes-artificial-intelligence-to-enhance-future-golden-dome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=1974","title":{"rendered":"US Army eyes artificial intelligence to enhance future Golden Dome"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Army is looking to increase autonomy through artificial intelligence solutions to reduce the manpower needed to\u00a0manage Golden Dome<\/a>, President Donald Trump\u2019s desired\u00a0homeland missile defense architecture<\/a>, the service\u2019s program executive officer for missiles and space said this week.<\/p>\n

As the Army contributes a large portion of the\u00a0in-development air and missile defense architecture for Guam,<\/a>\u00a0it is looking to adapt those capabilities for a Golden Dome application, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano told Defense News in an interview at Redstone Arsenal on Wednesday amid the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.<\/p>\n

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Some of the Army\u2019s major contributions to the Guam Defense System include new modernized radars, an emerging Indirect Fire Protection Capability<\/a>\u00a0and its\u00a0new Integrated Battle Command System<\/a>, or IBCS.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is three things,\u201d Lozano said. \u201cWe\u2019re wanting to integrate more AI-enabled fire control so that will help us reduce the manpower footprint. We\u2019re wanting to create more remotely operated systems so that we don\u2019t have to have so many operators and maintainers associated with every single piece of equipment that\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he said, \u201cWe need to have more autonomously operated systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Currently, the Army typically has a launcher with a missile and a launcher crew consisting of at least two to three soldiers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIn the Golden Dome application, we would likely either have containerized missiles \u2014 think box of rockets \u2014 or we might actually put rockets and missiles in the ground,\u201d Lozano said. Those systems would require less frequent upkeep, as a smaller manpower footprint means status checks might only happen every couple of weeks, and test checks would be conducted remotely, he said.<\/p>\n

In order to work on such capability, the Army is planning to use what it learns from maturing the Guam Defense System, which will become operational in roughly 2027 with Army assets. The service will also pivot its\u00a0Integrated Fires Test Campaign<\/a>, or IFTC, from a focus on testing the Guam architecture incrementally to how to inject autonomy and AI into those systems for Golden Dome beyond 2026.<\/p>\n

The IFTC in 2026 is considered the Guam Defense System \u201cSuper Bowl,\u201d Lozano said. Then, beyond 2027, he said, \u201cIf we\u2019re called upon to support Golden Dome initiatives, we need to have those advanced AI, remotely operated, autonomous-based formations and systems ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To begin, the Army will be focused on defining the functions that human operators perform at all the operator terminals within an IBCS-integrated fire control center or at a particular launching station, Lozano said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Once those functions are defined, Lozano said, the Army will have to define the data sources that drive action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to create the decision rubric that assesses and analyzes that data that then drives a human decision, and then we have to code AI algorithms to be able to process that information and make the right decision,\u201d Lozano said. \u201cThere will be trigger points where the software has to say, \u2018I\u2019m not authorized to make that level of decision. It\u2019s got to go back to the human and deliver.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time, the Army\u2019s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space is interacting with many new market entrants in the AI realm to work on the effort.<\/p>\n

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For example, Lozano said he met this week at the Global Force Symposium with the French defense firm Safran. Safran, known for its assured position, navigation and timing capabilities, is planning a significant U.S. expansion<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The defense firm provides capability for various Army missile programs, including Patriot air and missile defense systems and IBCS, as well as Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and Precision Strike Missile programs.<\/p>\n

Lozano told the company he is looking for ways to reduce humans having to perform actions, such as verifying that timing data is synchronized with satellite timing.<\/p>\n

The Army has also begun discussions with\u00a0Anduril<\/a>, which, in early January, acquired the U. S. defense company Numerica, which happens to write the Army\u2019s IBCS fire control software. The service has discussed with Anduril how it can start looking at integrating more AI fire control functionality into its major air and missile defense command-and-control system.<\/p>\n

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Part of the plan is focused on engaging with some nontraditional industry, such as venture capitalists and newly established small companies tackling these challenges, according to Lozano.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Army will spend the next six to nine months defining what it wants to look for from industry and then will begin hosting industry days and issuing requests for information, he said.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. Army is looking to increase autonomy through artificial intelligence solutions to reduce the manpower needed to\u00a0manage Golden Dome, President Donald Trump\u2019s desired\u00a0homeland missile defense architecture, the service\u2019s program […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,28],"tags":[87,416,77],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-army","category-military-tech","tag-ai","tag-golden-dome","tag-us-army"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Golden-Dome.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2122,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions\/2122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}