The Blind Spot In Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Strategy: Drones And Missiles

The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
American Liberty News
- June 5, 2026
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Six House Republicans broke with GOP leadership on Wednesday, joining Democrats to advance legislation that would provide billions of dollars in additional support to Ukraine despite ongoing opposition from President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The House voted 218-204 in favor of a discharge petition that forces consideration of the Ukraine Support Act, a measure that had remained stalled for more than a year after Republican leaders declined to bring it to the floor.

The vote marks one of the most significant bipartisan challenges to Republican leadership on foreign.

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7 minute read

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) Trump’s proposed missile defense initiative could revolutionize homeland defense. But it has a big blind spot — the “underlayer.”

U.S. missile defense has long been structured around protecting from intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) reentering the atmosphere from space. But today’s adversaries are innovating entirely different technologies.

The most immediate threats to the nation will come not from enemy missiles that are launched into space and then arc down toward us.

They will come from the “underlayer” — the low-altitude area where traditional radar coverage is weakest and terrain masking allows adversaries to approach undetected.

Our enemies no longer need nuclear missiles to wreak havoc on our soil.

A van outfitted with drones could threaten the power grid, a container ship in the Gulf of Mexico could launch cruise missiles at ports, or aircraft operating 500 miles off California could target our military bases.

The capability exists. The question is whether we can see it in time.

That same blind spot creates risks in peacetime, as our skies grow more crowded with drones, delivery aircraft and passenger planes. The underlayer is where America is blind — whether to adversaries or to accidents waiting to happen.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense news from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

Former defense officials urge Pentagon to scale up hypersonic weapons manufacturing, warning that China and Russia are outpacing the U.S. in developing high-speed, maneuverable missiles that threaten to erode U.S. deterrence.

Cruise missiles are the present and future of warfare. There are two competing narratives about the future of warfare. For nearly the past two years, drones and artillery have been hailed as the way forward. The June 2025 Iran-Israel war revived the view that stealth warplanes are the future.

Overseas supply chains are critical U.S. infrastructure. It’s time U.S. policy caught up.

HOMELAND SECURITY

A judge blocked the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area for two weeks, finding no substantial evidence that a “danger of rebellion” is brewing in Illinois.

President Trump’s novel use of National Guard troops for law enforcement purposes has reopened a debate over states’ authority to control police powers, as dueling briefs from current and former state leaders filed in Illinois’ lawsuit against the president show.

U.S. Northern Command, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

More than half the states contributing National Guard troops to Trump’s federal law enforcement initiative in Washington have set target dates for their withdrawal later this fall.

Hundreds of DHS employees have been marked for reassignment to agencies focused border-security and deportation work and could be dismissed if they don’t comply.

Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) embarked aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102), interdicted 14 aliens aboard a 33-foot sport fishing vessel approximately 18 miles southeast of Catalina Island, California.

US POWER OVERSEAS

173rd Airborne Brigade troops stationed in Italy are taking insights gleaned from their Ukrainian counterparts fighting Russia to shape the Army’s future battlefield capabilities.

DEFENSE POLITICS

Senate unanimously endorses repeal of 2002 Iraq war resolution. More than two decades later, Congress is on the verge of writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq.

Get more F-35s in the air and don’t break the bank. You need to fix alarming mission-capability rates and rising sustainment costs for the Air Force’s F-35A fighter jet, senators told the service’s chief-of-staff nominee.

Airwolfhound from Hertfordshire, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Trump’s nominee for Air Force chief of staff, declined to pledge to follow lawmakers’ guidance on how to spend billions of dollars of reconciliation funds, despite similar commitments from other top Pentagon officials.

Gen. Wilsbach told senators that the Air Force isn’t having trouble recruiting cyber experts — the main problem is with retention and training.

CHINA THREAT

Drone parts recovered from Iranian proxy group attacks trigger latest U.S. blacklist of Chinese companies. U.S. government added 29 entries to its Entity List, including 16 located in China determined to be supplying military drone parts to Iran and its proxies.

Taiwan will accelerate the building of a “Taiwan Shield” or “T-Dome” air defense system in the face of the military threat from China.

RUSSIA THREAT

Russia carried out a “massive attack” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving parts of the capital Kyiv without power.

NATO Italian Eurofighters based in Estonia and Hungarian Gripens operating from Lithuania scrambled this week to monitor Russian aircraft flying close to allied airspace.

NATO French Navy frigate has been conducting surveillance of a Russian submarine operating on the surface off the coast of Brittany.

Two UK Royal Air Force aircraft have carried out extensive surveillance flights along NATO’s eastern frontier, covering the entire stretch from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, almost the entire NATO border with Russia.

With NATO target in mind, Italy is spending $36.2 billion on defense this year.

Russian Navy Pacific Fleet surface group is in the Philippine Sea en route to Southeast Asia.

Putin is taking his hybrid warfare to the sea. As a retired U.S. admiral and former supreme allied commander of the NATO, I was thrilled when Sweden and Finland joined the alliance. My first thought was about the vast coastline the two Nordic states provided, essentially turning the Baltic Sea into a “NATO lake.”

SPACE THREATS

Space Force wants access to a fleet of small, maneuverable commercial satellites that can provide a range of services from geosynchronous orbit, chiefly satellite communications.

Australia’s Space Command is considering its options for gaining “space control” capabilities.

MIDDLE EAST THREATS

UN is ready to surge 170,000 metric tons food of medicine and other humanitarian aid into Gaza and waiting for green light from Israel after deal.

Ashraf Amra, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Combat mass and speed: Europe moves to unlock Ukraine’s drone insights. Western countries scrambling to counter rising aerial threats should move beyond the simple stockpiling of countermeasures and adopt Ukraine’s faster, cheaper and battle-tested drone warfare model.

Japan continues to enhance its new long distance standoff cruise missile capability for its submarine fleet, as well as improved anti-ship missiles for its destroyers.

Pakistani security forces killed 30 militants in multiple raids on Pakistani Taliban hideouts in the country’s northwestern region where insurgents this week ambushed a security convoy, killing 11 soldiers.

Explosions hit Kabul as Taliban make diplomatic push to India. A series of explosions and bursts of gunfire rattled Afghanistan’s capital last week.

US MILITARY

Air Force plans to create independent squadrons for its future fleet of collaborative combat aircraft instead of adding the drone wingmen to already-existing squadrons of manned fighters.

L3Harris has unveiled a roadmap for the further development of its VAMPIRE counter-drone system, a version of which has been delivered to Ukraine, using laser-guided 70mm rockets as effectors and mounted on Humvees.

Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) is planning to unveil three new capabilities related to counter-UAS capabilities, loitering munitions and lower signature command posts at annual AUSA conference.

Northrop Grumman lays a path to air-launching its Lumberjack loitering one-way attack drone from Kratos’ stealthy XQ-58 Valkyrie uncrewed aircraft.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

READ NEXT: Romney Family Member Found Dead; Investigation Underway

Picture of Paul Crespo

Paul Crespo

Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for state and federal office, taught political science, wrote for the editorial board of a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad. To read more go to: paulcrespo.com.

1 Comment
    Pat N

    In your essay regarding the changing nature of war, you missed the correct wording: you have “a container ship in the Gulf of Mexico” in the essay but the proper term is the Gulf of America.

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