AUSA 2025 — As part of the US Army’s emerging Western Hemisphere Command, a three-star general said the service’s Space and Missile Defense Command has expanded its purview and is now overseeing a larger portion of the service’s contribution to homeland air and missile defense mission.
“We did grow in responsibility,” SMDC head Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey told Breaking Defense on Tuesday. “The ground-based midcourse defense mission that we traditionally held under NORTHCOM has expanded to air and missile defense holistically” to include defense against other threats, including drones.
That also means SMDC has been given more organizational support. As of this month, the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, which historically supported US Central Command, and the 263rd Army Air and Missile Defense Command have both been assigned to SMDC.
“As we received the two [commands], our role changes from GMD [ground-based midcourse defense] … to AMD [air and missile defense],” Gainey said. “So, in that capacity, we now have all elements of the defense of the homeland … and to help plan and execute missions like the National Capital Region.”
“We inherit that responsibility,” the three-star general added.
The move comes as part of the Army’s broader plan to stand up a Western Hemisphere Command, which will combine the Army North Command, Army South Command and Force Command (FORSCOM). The Trump administration is also expected to place an enhanced focus on homeland defense in the forthcoming National Defense Strategy, and is pursuing a more comprehensive Golden Dome strategy.
In the meantime, the Army has also completed its new Air and Missile Defense (AMD) Strategy 2040, though the document is awaiting the blessing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Secretary Dan Driscosll.
“It’s right now going through final staffing,” Gainey said. “We expect that to happen in November and be released in November timeframe.”
The revamped strategy, he explained, encompasses lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East, along with a shifting focus on homeland defense, and touches on the ever-growing drone threat.
“It’s now more of an architecture approach where you have several systems with the ability to sense and engage several different places, because of the way the threat is offering the complexities,” Gainey said. “No longer are you going to be just [going to see] a tactical ballistic missile threat. No longer are you just going to [see] a cruise missile threat. You’re going to be in all of that at one time, so you need to have a system of systems approach as opposed to a specific, isolated system approach.”
Theresa Hitchens contributed to this report from Washington, DC.
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