The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) named 1,014 companies eligible to compete for work under the first phase of its Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contracting vehicle this week.
The Defense Department (DOD) – rebranded as the War Department by the Trump administration – did not release the names of companies selected in the first round.
SHIELD is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with a ceiling of $151 billion, according to announcements published Tuesday. Work could continue through December 2035 if all options are exercised. No funds are obligated on the base award, with money added as task orders are issued.
SHIELD allows MDA and other DOD components to rapidly compete and award orders across a wide range of work, including digital engineering, open systems architectures, and artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.
The contract is closely aligned with the objectives of the Golden Dome initiative, a multi-layered defense architecture built from networks of sensors and weapons able to detect, track and intercept missile threats to the United States.
According to MDA, by enabling rapid development and integration of capabilities across domains, SHIELD is positioned to support Golden Dome’s vision of defending against air, missile, space, and hybrid attacks, regardless of where they originate.
In addition to SHIELD, MDA is running a second contract vehicle for Golden Dome called the Multiple Authority Announcement (MAA), which aims to support work in areas such as kinetic and hypersonic defense, command-and-control battle management, integrated non-kinetic and electronic warfare, space-based capabilities and other emerging technologies.
The Golden Dome program originated from an executive order issued by President Trump on January 27, tasking DoD with building a “next-generation missile defense shield” to combat the growing threat posed by hypersonic weapons and other advanced systems.
Golden Dome is overseen by Gen. Michael Guetlein who was appointed in May as the initiative’s direct reporting manager. No implementation plan has been publicly released, but Guetlein has begun briefing senior officials and the plan is expected to be delivered soon.