WASHINGTON — The technology and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton unveiled a concept for a mega-constellation of satellites designed to fulfill the Trump administration’s “Golden Dome” vision for a comprehensive missile-defense shield to protect the United States.
The concept, dubbed “Brilliant Swarms,” would consist of up to 2,000 small satellites operating as an interconnected network powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, according to company executives.
“Unlike today’s ground-based, single-shot interceptors, Brilliant Swarms delivers a multi-shot capability to defeat missile launches during the boost-ascent and early mid-course phases of flight,” Chris Bogdan, Booz Allen executive vice president and head of the company’s space business, told reporters March 27.
The satellites would serve dual purposes as both detection systems and “kill vehicles” that would de-orbit, target, and physically slam into threats without requiring missiles in space.
Cost and timeline
Trey Obering, senior adviser at Booz Allen and a former director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the system could be developed and fielded for approximately $25 billion, significantly less than the $65 billion spent on current missile-defense systems focused on threats from North Korea and Iran.
Obering clarified that $25 billion would be for all 2,000 satellites but the system is scalable so the cost could be lower, depending on the actual number of spacecraft.
The company has pitched the concept to the Missile Defense Agency and believes it could demonstrate the capability to intercept a cooperative target in orbit within three years, with the ability to intercept multiple uncooperative targets by the fourth year. Full deployment could occur within five to seven years.
Obering emphasized that the current missile defense system “does not address threats from Russia and China.”
Technical specifications
The proposed architecture would include 1,000 to 2,000 satellites arranged in 20 orbital planes, with 100 satellites per plane in polar orbits at 300 to 600 kilometers altitude. Each satellite would weigh between 40 and 80 kilograms, allowing 100 to be launched simultaneously on a large rocket.
The system would respond to a broad range of threats specified in the Golden Dome executive order, including ballistic and hypersonic boost/glide cruise missiles, and aerial drones.
Bogdan explained that each satellite would simultaneously function as a communications node, tracker, and kinetic interceptor. “Each satellite has the knowledge of every other satellite, and unlike today’s ground based single-shot interceptors, they all serve as both sensors and hit-to-kill interceptors.”
Inspired by Ukrainian defense tactics
Bogdan compared Brilliant Swarms to Ukraine’s GIS Arta defense system, nicknamed “Uber for artillery,” which coordinates disparate data sources and artillery units to optimize strikes against Russian forces.
“Now imagine this capability in space, where a constellation of satellites is tracking a missile that was just launched and then autonomously, in real time, selects the most effective satellites in the constellation to swarm on the launched missile and then become hit-to-kill vehicles,” Bogdan said.
The system would also provide its own defense against anti-satellite weapons, using the same “hit-to-kill” technique to counter threats aimed at the constellation.
Complementary to existing systems
Booz Allen executives emphasized that Brilliant Swarms would complement, not compete with, ongoing Pentagon programs led by the Space Development Agency and Missile Defense Agency.
“It’s important to feed into the overall system, especially for the ground based interceptors and the other layers of the missile defense system,” Bogdan said. “We don’t see this as a replication of what they’re doing. We see it as a complementary capability.”
While the name echoes the Reagan administration’s “Brilliant Pebbles” missile defense concept that critics derided as “Star Wars,” Bogdan argued this approach is more viable because “it’s now affordable and feasible to rapidly put up thousands of small satellites in orbit.”
As a technology and consulting firm, Booz Allen does not manufacture hardware but has partnered with various suppliers, including launch companies and startups, some backed by Booz Allen Ventures.
“What we do bring to the table is the technical glue that holds this new technical architecture together,” Obering said.
According to Obering, the interceptor satellites would contain no explosives, using only kinetic energy to destroy targets. Despite being roughly the size of a small refrigerator, each satellite could serve as a powerful interceptor because it would fly at such high speeds that the kinetic energy alone would destroy the target missile. He noted that approximately 40% of a satellite would burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere, with about 10% potentially reaching the ground as debris.
