Air & Missile Defense Systems

The Paris Air Show gave America’s biggest defense suppliers a global stage to describe how they would fold familiar missiles, radars and command-and-control networks into President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome homeland-defense plan. They argued that starting with hardware already in service will cut cost and time, but even their upbeat briefings could not hide a basic truth: no one yet knows exactly who will run integration, how the money will flow, or whether a space-based interceptor layer can be fielded by 2028.

The Army has given the green light to start low-rate production of its Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 system this October. Defense officials confirm that the signed acquisition decision memorandum cleared the final gate after a quick turn-around review on 28 June. According to industry sources, Dynetics, a Leidos company, received the first production task order hours later. The order covers eight launchers, two battle management kits, and initial spares worth about $385 million.