Email from December 17th, 2025 Click here to view the Alert on the MDAA website Follow and Support MDAA   MDAA Alert: Golden Pacific - Getting Missile Defense Right in the Pacific (Highlights + Transcript) MDAA's 89th Virtual Congressional Roundtable, Golden Pacific - Getting Missile Defense Right in the Pacific, December 16, 2025. Dear Members and Friends, "Good afternoon from a pretty cold day here in Alexandria, Virginia. Not as cold as the eastern front, but it's cold here. I want to start off with Bravo Zulu, the U.S. Navy. What an exceptional game this past weekend, and it came down to the last play, which is great football. I just want to put that out there. Both teams could have won it at the end, and so I'll give it to Navy. Hi, I'm Riki Ellison. I'm the chairman and founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. It's been 25 years, and I have been involved with missile defense for 45 years. 45 years, and we're solely on the mission, pure mission, on advocating for missile defense to make our nation and the world safer in deployment and evolution. And it is. It is making our world safer, and we need more of it, and that's where we're going to go with this discussion. Welcome to our 89th virtual on Golden Pacific, what we can make missile defense right in the Pacific. I've just returned from a 44-day trip around the world and back, and 30 of those days were in the Pacific, from Japan, Guam, Honolulu, Hawaii, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. And that theater, that region, is the place where deterrence must happen, and that is the critical place to deter the biggest threat to the world order. And missile defense plays a tremendous part in that deterrence. And from those travels and meeting with our warfighters, both allied Pacific allies and our own across all the services, my observation is that we see a competition maybe or a difference between wanting a persistent missile and air defense that's there all the time, versus an expeditionary one that can move. And most of the services line up with expeditionary. The Army is using Guam specifically to create their expeditionary new composite air defense capabilities. And it's brilliant, it's phenomenal to see, but all those pieces are movable, and those are designed to go expeditionary to where the warfighter wants them to go. And we look at the Navy, and the Navy has probably the most capable missile defense platform in the world on an Aegis BMD ship that can defend 360 all the way from sea to space. But those ships are expeditionary. And the Navy over the last 20 years have fought it, but they've been forced to do persistent missile defense in Europe, in Romania, in Poland, and in Guam, whether you call assigning two ships or one ship, that's persistent rather than not having. I think you look at the Air Force, and they want to do agile combat mission, and they want expeditionary missile defense to move all over the place in the Pacific. And the Marines obviously are an expeditionary force. So the only two major people that, or excuse me, three, would be the Space Force, who would have persistent capability. And I would say, Missile Defense Agency, because they created the GMD system that does persistent missile defense and very good at that aspect of it. And I would say the Golden Dome, because the Golden Dome is not expeditionary, the Golden Dome is persistent missile defense. And the Golden Dome is going to have to persistently defend Hawaii, Alaska, California, and the Pacific - Guam is the discussion we may have today a little bit about it. But there is the dilemma between that. And we know INDOPACOM looking possibly to put a joint task force or joint task force command on Guam, a facility there that's going to require persistent defense versus expeditionary missile defense capabilities on that. And so that's where the discussion is going to go." -- Riki Ellison Executive Summary I. Introduction The Virtual CRT: Golden Pacific convened senior defense leaders to examine one of the most pressing strategic challenges facing the United States: how to design missile defense in the Indo‑Pacific that balances persistent protection of U.S. territory with the expeditionary demands of modern warfare. Hosted by Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) Chairman Riki Ellison, the discussion brought together General (Ret.) Charles Flynn (U.S. Army Pacific), Lieutenant General (Ret.) Jon Thomas (PACAF), and Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery (U.S. Navy INDOPACOM) to explore the future architecture of deterrence across the Pacific theater. II. Strategic Context: The Pacific as the Center of Deterrence Riki Ellison framed the discussion through direct observations from an extended trip across the Pacific, arguing that deterrence in the 21st century will be decided in this theater. Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, and the U.S. West Coast represent both strategic assets and known targets, making missile defense a foundational requirement for maintaining regional and global stability. III. Persistent vs. Expeditionary Missile Defense A central tension emerged between persistent missile defense—fixed, always‑on protection of key territory—and expeditionary missile defense designed to maneuver with forces. General Flynn advocated transforming land‑based missile defense from static protection into mobile, maneuver‑oriented forces capable of both defense and counter‑fire. Ellison countered that such expeditionary systems cannot substitute for persistent defense, particularly for U.S. territory such as Guam. IV. Command, Control, and Integration Lieutenant General Thomas emphasized the indispensable role of the Area Air Defense Commander (AADC) in coordinating sensors and shooters across the theater. Expeditionary systems, naval platforms, and fixed defenses must operate within a unified command architecture to ensure optimal engagement decisions and risk management. V. Budgetary and Institutional Constraints Rear Admiral Montgomery underscored that strategic ambition must be reconciled with fiscal reality. Defense budgets are flattening in real terms, forcing difficult tradeoffs. Golden Dome initiatives may receive priority funding, but services will face pressure to integrate efficiently rather than pursue service‑unique solutions. VI. The Role of Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Participants repeatedly identified the Missile Defense Agency as the institutional center of gravity for persistent missile defense integration. MDA’s historical role in developing Aegis BMD and ground‑based defense positions it uniquely to architect Golden Dome integration across services and domains. VII. Strategic Implications Golden Pacific highlighted that effective Indo‑Pacific deterrence requires layered missile defense: space‑based sensing, persistent territorial defense, and maneuverable expeditionary forces operating within a unified data and command architecture. Failure to integrate these elements risks both wasted resources and strategic vulnerability. VIII. Conclusion The Virtual CRT: Golden Pacific underscored that missile defense in the Indo‑Pacific is not a question of choosing between persistence and maneuver, but of integrating both. Golden Dome, MDA, and the combatant commands must align architecture, authority, and resources to ensure deterrence holds in the world’s most consequential theater. Speakers: GEN. (Ret.) Charles Flynn, Former Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jon Thomas, Former Deputy Commander, Pacific Air Forces RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, Former Director of Operations, U.S. Pacific Command Riki Ellison, MDAA Founder and Chairman Click here to view executive summary Click here to view transcript Click here to view recording Winners Associate with Winners to Win! Fight on! Riki Ellison Chairman and Founder Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance   Click Here to Join MDAA _____________________________________________________________________ MDAA is a non-profit, non-partisan tax-exempt 501(c) (4) organization. Our mission is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States and its allies against missile threats. We are a membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology, architecture or entity. Founded in 2002, MDAA is the only organization in existence whose primary mission is to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. 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