NORTHCOM’s Joint Task Force-Gold to coordinate cyber warfare for Golden Dome

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Nicholas Agriesti, 509th Communications Squadron cyber readiness technician, looks through code on his computer at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, Aug. 11, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joseph Garcia)

WASHINGTON — US Northern Command’s (NORTHCOM) task force for coordinating Golden Dome homeland air and missile defense capabilities across the Joint Force has been newly charged with enabling related cyberwar capabilities, according to a senior official.

Col. Kevin “Stoney” Stonerook, deputy commander of Joint Task Force-Gold (JTF-Gold), told reporters here today at the annual Association of the US Army conference that cyber warfare “has become a new mission set for us.”

“We are helping put together the team of teams, all the different stakeholder communities — be that vendors and other government agencies — to really provide a cyber warfare capability for GDA, and that’s one of the main things that we’re really focused on,” he said.

In later comments to Breaking Defense, however, Stonerook stressed that task force’s cyber activities were focused only on defense against adversary attacks on Golden Dome capabilities, rather than offensive activities.

NORTHCOM announced JTF-Gold with little fanfare, and almost no information, in January. The announcement noted that the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) — a position held since April by Lt. Gen. John Rafferty — would be double-hatted as leader of the the task force, and co-located with SMDC at Peterson SFB, Colo.

“This new command enhances the integration and synchronization of the homeland’s integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) enterprise,” the announcement said.

Stonerook explained that JTF-Gold was created “out of the ashes” of US Space Command’s former Joint Force Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense. That component command’s mission “was really to take all things … of the missile defense system and make sure that that was well coordinated and orchestrated across the joint force,” he said.

“JTF-Gold was stood up to operationalize Golden Dome for America (GDA) for USNORTHCOM,” Stonerook said, and now sports about 100 personnel.

One of the the task force’s first missions has been to help develop “some of the sites as we look at building out GDA across the country and other areas, and trying to integrate all those capabilities across the multiple layers of GDA,” he said.

Stonerook said JTF-Gold was involved in siting and construction activities for Golden Dome’s first operational site at Fort Story, Va ., and will do the same at all future sites.

“But there’s a lot we still have to figure out,” he acknowledged.

For example, Stonerook said, Space Command’s integrated missile defense component command managed “all the assets across the missile defense system.” But now that JTF-Gold is under NORTHCOM, there is a need to figure out how to split those responsibilities.

“So, we’re still waiting to see where everything is falling out and whether those is needed redundancies. But our team is responsible for asset management, but the clear delineation of which assets are included and not included has not been completed.”

To that end, Stonerook said, JTF-Gold held a large “planning sprint” in February.

“We had over 300 people join us in Colorado Springs as we got a team of teams together to really understand who was doing what across the entirety of the GDA stakeholder community, and it was really beneficial,” he said. “It really kick started some of the planning, and we were able to develop concept of operations and continue on with a lot of the planning with things that were questions that were unanswered.”

Stonerook said that the next such planning sprint will be at the end of the month, focused on figuring out the respective responsibilities of the three “major” operations centers for Golden Dome at Peterson, Schriever SFB, Colo., and Tyndall AFB, Fla.

“What those roles and responsibilities are and where those lines are drawn, where there’s necessary redundancy, is still an active discussion. So, the planning sprint that we have at the end of the month, that’s one of the main topics of things that we’re going to get after,” he said. “[W]ho should be doing what, are we resourced to do those things, and what additional capabilities are there?”

2025年8月11日，美国空军第509通信中队网络战备技术员尼古拉斯·阿格里斯蒂（Nicholas Agriesti）在密苏里州怀特曼空军基地查看电脑上的代码。（美国空军高级飞行员约瑟夫·加西亚摄）

华盛顿——据一位高级官员透露，美国北方司令部（NORTHCOM）负责协调联合部队“金穹顶”国土防空和导弹防御能力的特遣部队，已被赋予一项新的任务，即增强相关的网络战能力。

美国陆军联合特遣部队-金色部队（JTF-Gold）副指挥官凯文·“斯托尼”·斯托纳鲁克上校今天在美国陆军协会年会上告诉记者，网络战“已成为我们的一项新任务”。

他说：“我们正在帮助组建一个由各个团队组成的团队，包括供应商和其他政府机构在内的所有利益相关方，以便真正为GDA提供网络战能力，这是我们真正关注的主要事项之一。”

然而，在后来接受 Breaking Defense 采访时，斯托纳鲁克强调，特遣部队的网络活动仅侧重于防御敌方对金穹顶能力的攻击，而不是进攻性活动。

今年1月，北方司令部低调宣布成立联合特遣部队“金色部队”（JTF-Gold），几乎没有提供任何信息。公告指出，陆军太空与导弹防御司令部（SMDC）司令——自4月以来一直担任该职位的约翰·拉弗蒂中将——将兼任该特遣部队的指挥官，并与SMDC一同驻扎在科罗拉多州彼得森空军基地。

公告称：“这一新指挥部加强了国土一体化防空和导弹防御（IAMD）体系的整合与协调。”

斯托纳鲁克解释说，联合特遣部队“黄金”是由美国太空司令部前联合导弹防御部队组成司令部“浴火重生”而成的。他说，该组成司令部的任务“实际上是接管导弹防御系统的所有方面，并确保联合部队内部的协调和统筹运作”。

“JTF-Gold 成立的目的是为了让美国北方司令部的‘金穹顶’（GDA）投入运作，”斯托纳鲁克说，“现在它拥有大约 100 名人员。”

他说，工作组的首要任务之一是帮助开发“一些站点，因为我们正在全国和其他地区建设 GDA，并试图将所有这些能力整合到 GDA 的多个层面”。

斯托纳鲁克表示，JTF-Gold参与了位于弗吉尼亚州斯托里堡的黄金穹顶第一个作战基地的选址和建设活动，并将参与所有未来基地的选址和建设活动。

“但我们仍然有很多问题需要解决，”他承认道。

例如，斯托纳鲁克说，太空司令部的综合导弹防御系统司令部负责管理“整个导弹防御系统的所有资产”。但现在联合特遣部队“黄金”隶属于北方司令部，因此需要弄清楚如何划分这些职责。

“所以，我们仍在等待最终结果，看看哪些环节出了问题，以及是否需要进行裁员。我们的团队负责资产管理，但哪些资产包含在内，哪些不包含在内，目前还没有明确的界定。”

斯托纳鲁克表示，为此，联合特遣部队黄金部队在二月份举行了一次大型“规划冲刺”。

他说：“我们召集了300多人到科罗拉多斯普林斯，组成了一个团队，以便真正了解GDA所有利益相关方各自的工作内容，这真的很有益处。这极大地推动了规划工作的开展，我们得以制定运营概念，并继续推进许多之前悬而未决的问题的规划工作。”

斯托纳鲁克表示，下一次此类规划冲刺将在月底进行，重点是确定位于彼得森空军基地、科罗拉多州施里弗空军基地和佛罗里达州廷德尔空军基地的三个“主要”作战中心在金穹顶的各自职责。

“这些角色和职责具体是什么，界限在哪里，哪些地方需要冗余，这些目前仍在积极讨论中。所以，月底的规划冲刺会议，是我们重点关注的议题之一，”他说道。“谁应该做什么，我们是否有足够的资源来完成这些工作，以及还有哪些额外的能力？”