«Trump’s missile shield plan fuels industry optimism

President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the Pentagon to build a “next-generation missile defense shield” has defense contractors eyeing major business opportunities. The initiative, called the Iron Dome for America, aims to bolster homeland defenses against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile threats using a multi-layered system, including space-based sensors and potentially interceptors in orbit.

What’s happening:
Executives from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris told analysts last week that their companies are primed to support the administration’s ambitious missile defense push.

🚀Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden: “We welcome the urgency that the Trump administration is placing on protecting the homeland from escalating global missile threats.” The company is already a key player in satellite-based missile detection and hypersonic interceptors.

🚀L3Harris CEO Christopher Kubasik said the firm is heavily invested in space-based missile defense, producing missile-tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer program.

🚀Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet highlighted Lockheed’s work on the “next-generation interceptor” and expressed interest in expanding into hypersonic missile interceptors using AI and high-speed data networks.

The payload could be a trio of modernized Rodnik satellites that ISS Reshetnev was ordered to develop in 2015 under a project known as "Klyuch" ("key"). Six were ordered in all (serial nrs. 29/30/31 ("Block 17") and nrs. 32/33/34 ("Block 18"). Klyuch was a direct result of the sanctions imposed on Russia beginning in 2014. These made it necessary to replace foreign-built electronic components for the satellites' communications payload (14R59) by Russian-built ones. Since Rokot carried a Ukrainian-built control system, it was also decided to transfer the satellites to the Angara-1.2 launch vehicle. However, it is perfectly possible that after the later decision to fly an all-Russian version of Rokot, the satellites were moved back to that rocket.

The only other known payloads for Rokot-M are a series of unidentified military satellites built by CNIIHM. Their existence became known earlier this month with the publication of a preliminary report discussing the environmental impact of their launches. The CNIIHM satellites will be launched into a variety of orbits by both Angara-1.2 and Rokot-M, with the latter deploying them into 800 km orbits with inclinations of 82.5°, 86.4° and 98°.