d4b6b9248e
- Source: inbox/queue/2026-01-16-businesswire-ast-spacemobile-shield-idiq-prime.md - Domain: space-development - Claims: 1, Entities: 1 - Enrichments: 2 - Extracted by: pipeline ingest (OpenRouter anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5) Pentagon-Agent: Astra <PIPELINE>
65 lines
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1.9 KiB
Markdown
65 lines
No EOL
1.9 KiB
Markdown
# SHIELD Program
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**Type:** Defense procurement vehicle
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**Parent:** U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
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**Full Name:** Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense
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**Status:** Active
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**Domain:** space-development
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## Overview
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SHIELD is the Missile Defense Agency's primary acquisition vehicle for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative. It functions as an Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract structure that pre-qualifies commercial and defense vendors to compete for task orders without repeating full and open competitions.
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## Key Facts
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- **Total Ceiling:** $151 billion shared across all awardees
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- **Awardees:** 2,440 vendors approved out of 2,463 applicants
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- **Award Tranches:**
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- December 2, 2025: 1,014 awards
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- December 18, 2025: 1,086 awards
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- January 15, 2026: 340 awards
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## Scope Areas
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- Sensor development
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- Interceptor technology
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- Battle management and command and control (C2)
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- Space-based tracking
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- Hypersonic defense
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## Notable Awardees
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**Traditional Defense Primes:**
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- Northrop Grumman
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- Lockheed Martin
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- L3Harris
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- SAIC
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- Leonardo DRS
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**Space Companies:**
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- Blue Origin
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- SpaceX
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- Rocket Lab
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- Iridium
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- AST SpaceMobile
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- MDA Space
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**Defense Tech:**
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- Anduril
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- Palantir
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- HawkEye 360
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## Structure
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SHIELD operates as a "hunting license" model: Prime IDIQ position enables vendors to bid directly on task orders but does not guarantee revenue. Actual procurement requires winning specific task order competitions.
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## Timeline
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- **2025-12-02** — First tranche of 1,014 IDIQ awards announced
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- **2025-12-18** — Second tranche of 1,086 IDIQ awards announced
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- **2026-01-15** — Third tranche of 340 IDIQ awards announced, including AST SpaceMobile for C2 and battle management applications
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## Sources
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- BusinessWire, AST SpaceMobile announcement, January 16, 2026
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- MDA SAM.gov filings, December 2025 - January 2026 |