US Northern Command has handed its Golden Dome task force a new mission, making cyber warfare a formal part of the homeland missile defense effort.
Col. Kevin Stonerook, deputy commander of Joint Task Force-Gold, said the cyber role is defensive, focused on protecting Golden Dome architecture rather than launching offensive operations. He described the task force as assembling a team of teams across vendors and government agencies to deliver that protection.
JTF-Gold was stood up quietly in January and is co-located with Army Space and Missile Defense Command at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. Its commander, Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, also leads SMDC. The unit grew out of Space Command’s former joint component command for integrated missile defense and now counts roughly 100 personnel.
The task force helped plan siting and construction for Golden Dome’s first operational site at Fort Story, Virginia, and expects to do the same at later locations. Stonerook said the division of responsibilities with Space Command is still being worked out, noting that the boundaries of which assets fall under JTF-Gold have not been finalized.
A planning sprint in February drew more than 300 participants from across the Golden Dome stakeholder community and produced an initial concept of operations. A second sprint is scheduled for the end of October, centered on defining the roles of three major operations centers at Peterson, Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado and Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.
Stonerook said redundant coverage between those hubs is an open question. The cyber mission sits inside a program that President Trump has framed as a shield against advanced missile threats, a multibillion-dollar effort that pairs space sensors with terrestrial interceptors.
