The joint missile defense emerged as the most prominent issue on the agenda of the 46th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit, held on December 3, 2025, in Bahrain.
The attention was not surprising given the timing of the summit. It was preceded and was held under the shadow of armed conflicts stretching from Ukraine to the “12-Day War” between Israel and Iran. Conflicts that underscored the importance of air-defense systems and cooperation around them.
Accordingly, GCC leaders affirmed at the conclusion of the summit that their security is indivisible, and they expressed their commitment to developing a joint security and defense system.
Within this context, the Gulf Missile Dome project stands out as a strategic step toward broader defense coordination. It is aimed at enhancing the collective ability of Gulf states to confront aerial and missile threats.
GCC Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi said Wednesday that Gulf states are working with their allies to complete “the joint Gulf missile shield.”
With growing attention to this project, GCC countries are moving toward building integrated defensive capabilities—an objective long discussed in recent years, but whose completion requires navigating a range of challenges to ensure a successful implementation.
The Gulf Missile Dome
As missile ranges grow longer and aerial and maritime attacks increase, Gulf states have found themselves compelled to re-engineer their security architecture.
In this context, Al-Budaiwi said ahead of the summit that the GCC is exploring the adoption of a unified defense system against missile attacks and the creation of a regional shield that “would grant member states integrated capabilities to confront modern threats.” He noted that the heightened focus on joint Gulf defense during the summit is “a direct response to an exceptionally sensitive regional environment where threat parameters have expanded.”
In recent years, Gulf states have strengthened military and security cooperation through building an early-warning system, updating joint defense plans, real-time data sharing, and improving coordination among command-and-control centers.
Mohammed Saleh Al-Harbi, a strategy researcher, says the “Gulf Missile Dome will function as a multilayered umbrella capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones within a unified command-and-control structure. This accelerates warning and decision-making processes and provides more efficient ways to manage munitions via centralized launch protocols.” He adds that the system would allow states to redistribute their defenses based on shifting axes of threat.
Retired Brigadier General Saeed bin Mohammed Al-Hajri links the missile dome to the concept of strategic efficiency. He says it “boosts operational efficiency by integrating early-warning systems into a single network and offers broader coverage and greater flexibility in capability deployment. It allows Gulf states to maintain continuous technical upgrades of their missile systems and opens the door to adopting new tools in managing aerial battles, such as artificial intelligence.”
Why Joint Defense Is an Imperative
Over the past decades, military and security cooperation among Gulf states has evolved, but major wars and global security events have heightened the challenges facing militaries in confronting diverse threats. This has amplified the need for deeper coordination among states to address them.
Abdulmohsen Al-Shammari, head of the Enfiraad Center for Consulting and Training, says that “Gulf states possess the technical ability to achieve high levels of real-time sharing of radar and intelligence data.” But this capacity, he adds, remains below its full potential due to several political and sovereignty-related factors. These include information sensitivity, varying weapons suppliers, differing data classification standards, and the absence of a unified command center.
Al-Shammari argues that overcoming these obstacles requires establishing a unified Gulf early warning network, consolidating command centers, updating military legislation, and strengthening cyber infrastructure.
For Al-Harbi, “complex cross-border attacks have demonstrated that Gulf security is indivisible, and that collective deterrence is the only tool capable of protecting vital infrastructure.”
Al-Hajri concurs with this view and says the nature of threats necessitates building joint defenses. He argues that cross-border missiles and aerial attacks are too large for any single state to confront alone.
Sakina Abdallah
A Saudi writer, researcher, and TV presenter
