In May, President Donald Trump announced that the planned missile defense shield, modeled after the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system and originally named Iron Dome for America and subsequently redesignated the “Golden Dome for America,” would be completed by the end of his second term. The White House had earmarked $175 billion, with Congress appropriating a down payment of $25 billion in July.
Since then, few details have emerged; however, last week, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) posted a solicitation notice for its SHIELD Multiple Award IDIQ Contract. This follows a draft version of the Request for Proposal (RFP) that was posted in July.
“The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announces the release of the Multiple Award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Request for Proposal (RFP) using a full and open competition,” the notice stated, potentially representing a 10-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle valued at up to $151 billion.
“As a long-planned strategy, SHIELD will allow MDA and other DoD entities to rapidly issue orders under one enterprise flexible vehicle,” it added, with proposals due on October 10.
SHEILD Up
The MDA’s SHIELD calls for an air defense system that could protect the “United States homeland, its deployed forces, allies and friends” against a variety of airborne threats, including ballistic, cruise, and even hypersonic missiles, as well as from space, cyber, and hybrid attacks.
The RFP had identified 19 work areas for potential contractors, including research and development, prototyping, experimentation, systems engineering, weapons design, data mining, modernization, cybersecurity, and modeling, simulation, and analysis. It will also have four primary work areas that include R&D, engineering and production, operations and support, analysis, and IT services.
“MDA will expect contractors to incorporate processes that provide rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter. This may include using artificial intelligence and/or machine learning-enabled applications where pertinent, and leveraging digital engineering, open systems architectures, model-based systems engineering, and agile processes in the acquisition, development, fielding and sustainment of these capabilities,” according to the statement of work,” the notice explained.
According to a report from Reuters, citing industry officials, this contract structure could allow the Pentagon and other Department entities “to rapidly issue task orders under a single, flexible procurement mechanism rather than managing separate competitive processes for each requirement. In essence, the SHIELD contract could support the effort as a blanket vehicle to centralize procurement.”
Big Names Likely Already Involved
It is already expected that the large aerospace and defense contractors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX—all of which already produce a multitude of missile defense systems—are likely to play a role in the building of the Golden Dome.
In April, SpaceX was named as leading a bid to build the Golden Dome with startups Anduril, a maker of drone technology, and software developer Palantir.
Other companies likely on the contractor shortlist to contribute to the program include L3Harris, Leonardo DRS, Parsons Corporation, and startup Apex.
Golden Dome is already earning comparisons to the famed Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb, as it is intended to protect the entire continental United States with a multilayer defense network. Critics have warned that it will cost far more than $175 billion, possibly as much as $500 billion, and could take decades to complete.
