The Missile Defense Agency will kick off the acquisition of the Golden Dome missile shield with a 10-year, $151 billion multiple-award contract, according to agency documents posted last week.
By Friday, the agency expects to release a draft solicitation for the contract vehicle—formally named Scalable Homeland Enterprise Layered Defense, or SHIELD. The final request for proposals is to be posted in June, according to a presolicitation notice posted Wednesday.
SHIELD is set up to allow for multiple contract types and will cover a variety of NAICS codes to give MDA, and the entire military, flexibility in the development of Golden Dome.
President Trump said last week that the system would be operational in three years at a cost of $175 billion, numbers that Pentagon officials, the Congressional Budget Office, and other experts have said are unlikely.
The notice says system must counter ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks across all flight phases. MDA wants advanced, multi-domain defense systems to protect the U.S. homeland, deployed forces, and allies against increasingly sophisticated threats.
The work can be broken out into several buckets:
Research and development:
- Science and technology research
- Prototyping and demonstrations
- Disruptive technology development
- Architecture development and systems engineering
Engineering and production:
- Weapon design and development
- Integration and assembly
- Production and fielding capabilities
- Hardware and software modifications
Operations and support:
- Test and evaluation services
- Operation and sustainment
- Modernization programs
- Cybersecurity solutions
Analysis and IT services:
- Modeling, simulation and analysis
- Data mining, collection and analysis
- RDT&E and mission-related IT services
The notice said SHIELD will emphasize the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. MDA is also emphasizing digital engineering, open systems architectures, model-based systems engineering and agile processes for the acquisition, development, fielding and sustainment functions.
Trump has appointed Gen. Michael Guetlein, Space Force’s vice chief of operations, to lead the Golden Dome effort.
In April, Guetlein told lawmakers that Golden Dome will require unprecedented cooperation among organizations and will combine several existing systems including ground-based Patriot missiles, THAAD interceptors, ship-fired missiles, and satellites for sensors and space-based weapons.
For more on Golden Dome, check out this episode of our WT 360 podcast featuring Defense One’s air and space reporter Audrey Decker.
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