By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency has begun the process of doling out contracts for President Donald Trump’s marquee Golden Dome missile defense shield, according to a solicitation notice posted on Wednesday.
Golden Dome’s ambitions mirror those of Israel’s Iron Dome – a homeland missile defense shield – but a larger, more complex layered defense system requires a vast network of orbiting satellites covering more territory.
The Multiple Award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract represents a 10-year, $151 billion indefinite delivery vehicle designed to rapidly deploy new defense capabilities to protect “United States homeland, its deployed forces, allies, and friends” against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats.
Proposal submissions are due on October 10, according to a government bulletin published Wednesday afternoon.
The contract structure allows the Pentagon and other Defense 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, industry executives said.
Industry executives say companies are positioning themselves to become authorized vendors under the expansive contract, which the agency plans to award to all qualifying bidders rather than selecting a limited number of contractors.
Work areas span 19 areas including early-stage research and development to production, testing and sustainment of advanced weapons systems.
Contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, and Boeing have a variety of missile defense systems and are expected to participate in Golden Dome.
SpaceX, which was part of a bid for Golden Dome contracts alongside software maker Palantir, and defense systems manufacturer Anduril are anticipated to put forth ideas.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in WashingtonEditing by Marguerita Choy)
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