HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is looking to increase autonomy through artificial intelligence solutions to reduce the manpower needed to manage Golden Dome, President Donald Trump’s desired homeland missile defense architecture, the service’s program executive officer for missiles and space said this week.
As the Army contributes a large portion of the in-development air and missile defense architecture for Guam, it 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’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.
Some of the Army’s major contributions to the Guam Defense System include new modernized radars, an emerging Indirect Fire Protection Capability and its new Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS.
“What we’re trying to do is three things,” Lozano said. “We’re wanting to integrate more AI-enabled fire control so that will help us reduce the manpower footprint. We’re wanting to create more remotely operated systems so that we don’t have to have so many operators and maintainers associated with every single piece of equipment that’s out there.”
And, he said, “We need to have more autonomously operated systems.”
Currently, the Army typically has a launcher with a missile and a launcher crew consisting of at least two to three soldiers.
“In the Golden Dome application, we would likely either have containerized missiles — think box of rockets — or we might actually put rockets and missiles in the ground,” 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.
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 Integrated Fires Test Campaign, 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.
The IFTC in 2026 is considered the Guam Defense System “Super Bowl,” Lozano said. Then, beyond 2027, he said, “If we’re called upon to support Golden Dome initiatives, we need to have those advanced AI, remotely operated, autonomous-based formations and systems ready to go.”
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.
Once those functions are defined, Lozano said, the Army will have to define the data sources that drive action.
“We 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,” Lozano said. “There will be trigger points where the software has to say, ‘I’m not authorized to make that level of decision. It’s got to go back to the human and deliver.’”
For the first time, the Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space is interacting with many new market entrants in the AI realm to work on the effort.
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.
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.
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.
The Army has also begun discussions with Anduril, which, in early January, acquired the U. S. defense company Numerica, which happens to write the Army’s 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.
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.
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.
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
