Golden Dome is a U.S. Department of Defense programme focused on building a scalable and distributed defence architecture across the continental United States and its territories. It is designed to integrate systems such as the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), TPY-6, and Sentinel A4 to provide early warning and real-time targeting of advanced missile threats.
Core Systems President Chris Schaffner emphasised the significance of the company’s work with Lockheed Martin. “Our collaboration with Rick Cordaro and his team at Lockheed Martin is shaping the future of missile defense,” he said. “It’s not just about building rugged hardware. It’s about advancing a vision for homeland security that demands high performance in the most extreme environments.”
Lockheed Martin is positioning itself to deliver key technologies for Golden Dome, and Core Systems is supplying ruggedised rack infrastructure to support the reliability of these platforms. The LRDR, in particular, is a central asset in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s detection and tracking network.
“Deterrence begins with detection,” said Rick Cordaro, Vice President of Radar and Sensor Systems at Lockheed Martin. “Core Systems helps us achieve that by ensuring the reliability and survivability of our platforms in the field.”
Core Systems is contributing tactical computing platforms designed for use in multi-domain operations. These include the RPS417 Rugged Laptop, Tactical GPU Systems, and the ATMOS Tactical Edge Node.
The RPS417 is a portable, server-grade system with high-speed processing and encryption for field environments. The Tactical GPU Systems are compact units designed for AI, ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance), and autonomous control, using NVIDIA GPUs.
The ATMOS Tactical Edge Node is built for mobile operations, and future iterations are expected to integrate NVIDIA Blackwell architecture for AI acceleration, ISR, and field model training.
“These aren’t lab concepts. They’re fielded systems already in use by U.S. special forces and mobile command units,” Schaffner said. “Every server, every laptop, every rack we build helps ensure our forces stay a step ahead of emerging threats.”
