Pentagon gears up for $151 billion in contracts on Trump’s Golden Dome; boost likely for Huntsville
Acquisition for President Donald Trump’s signature missile defense proposal is about to open.
The Missile Defense Agency has issued a pre-solicitation notice for a 10-year, $151 billion multiple-award contract (or MAC) vehicle in support of the so-called “Golden Dome for America.”
A MAC is a type of government contract where contracts are awarded to multiple companies for the same type of goods and services so an agency has the choice or flexibility with pre-approved suppliers.
The MAC vehicle being considered for Golden Dome is called Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD). It is intended to let Defense Department agencies rapidly issue orders under one enterprise flexible vehicle, according to a news release from MDA. The vehicle’s scope encompasses 19 work areas, including research and development, prototyping, disruptive technologies, and weapon design and development.
The full solicitation is expected to be released in June.
The announcement comes as the agency is preparing a workshop for defense contractors in Huntsville. The unclassified Golden Dome for America Industry Summit, June 11 at the Von Braun Center, is designed, “to equip non-traditional and industry partners with the knowledge and understanding of the Golden Dome for America and empower them to take concrete actions that support and align with government requirements.”
President Donald Trump said last week that the first $25 billion for Golden Dome would be funded in next year’s budget. The $25 billion is part of the White House’s initial request in its so-called “One, Big Beautiful Bill” that is now before the Senate after passing the House by one vote.
Trump has said he hoped the $175 billion effort would be in place by the end of his term. Experts have cast doubts on both the timeline and the cost projection. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated Golden Dome could carry a price tag of up to $831 billion over 20 years.
Building out new missile defense programs and expanding existing ones would likely boost Huntsville, which is home to numerous missile and space-focused firms, including all the legacy prime contractors as well as defense-focused startups.
The pre-solicitation notice on the federal contracting portal Sam.gov states the MDA, “requires an advanced, multi-domain defense system capable of detecting, tracking, intercepting, and neutralizing threats to the United States homeland, its deployed forces, allies, and friends across all phases of flight by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks.”
In an executive order issued in late January, Trump put a priority on space-based programs as he called for a renewed focus on homeland missile defense. Trump’s order borrowed its name from Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense program, a joint U.S.-Israeli venture designed to defend against relatively short-range threats. Trump’s plan was changed to “Golden Dome” shortly after his announcement.
The SHIELD vehicle will support national defense objectives by “ensuring continuous, layered protection against air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats originating from any vector – land, sea, air, space, or cyberspace,” the SAM.gov notice states.
U.S. missile defense has long focused on long-range threats from adversary nations like China and North Korea, in contrast to Israel’s system, which emphasizes short-range interdiction.