More than 1,000 defense companies have been picked to compete for Golden Dome work worth up to $151 billion—one of the biggest contract vehicles ever.
The Missile Defense Agency selected 1,104 “qualifying offerers” out of 2,463 applicants, according to a Tuesday evening Defense Department announcement, choosing about 45% of those who entered. The qualifying firms are permitted to vie for contracts under the the multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract dubbed Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense, or SHIELD. A list of the companies is here.
“If all options are exercised, work will continue through December 2035,” the announcement said. “No funds will be obligated on the base award; funds will be obligated at the order level.”
Plans for the giant contract—the acquisition backbone of the Golden Dome missile-defense program—were revealed in May. The Pentagon is rapidly moving and casting a wide net following President Donald Trump’s promise to have the missile-defense system ready by the end of his term.
Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said the SHIELD effort marks one of the highest potential contracts of all time.
“I don’t know if it’s the largest ever, but it’s certainly near the top in terms of overall contract ceiling,” Harrison said. “The number of awards suggests that they’re just trying to get nearly everyone on contract so they have easy options to award actual funding later on.”
MDA initially set an October deadline for companies to apply for SHIELD eligibility. The deadline was pushed back after “over 1,500 questions from industry” followed, Defense One previously reported.
“If I was one of the companies that got an award, I wouldn’t be too excited. But if I was one of the ones that didn’t get an award, I would be pretty upset,” Harrison said. “It’s like logging into Ticketmaster to buy some concert tickets and not even getting into the waiting room.”
The SHIELD announcement follows other recent Golden Dome-related contracts. Last week, the Space Force awarded several small contracts to develop prototypes of the space-based interceptors envisioned to shoot down ballistic missiles in the initial moments of flight. The service declined to name the defense companies it had chosen, citing national security measures and because the types of contracts awarded were exempt from federal disclosure regulations.
Last Thursday, the service posted a presolicitation notice on SAM.gov asking for prototype ideas for a space-based “kinetic midcourse interceptor,” which would destroy missiles by slamming into them outside the atmosphere. That Applications are due Dec. 7. Winners will receive contracts that, like the ones for the space-based interceptors, won’t require disclosure of the winners.
