A first look at the Golden Dome for America contract: MDA’s SHIELD

On July 25, 2025, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) released a draft request for proposal (RFP) for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple award indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (MA-IDIQ) contract. As a long-planned strategy, SHIELD will allow MDA and other U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) entities to rapidly issue orders under one enterprise flexible vehicle. The primary purpose of this contract is to permit the MDA and other DOD agencies to streamline and optimize the acquisition of missile defense systems, and related maintenance, operations and development services as the agency sets out to develop the ambitious Golden Dome for America (GDA).

Scope of contract

The MDA requires an advanced, multidomain 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. This contract 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. This effort supports services and supplies of both classified and unclassified programs on multiple security domains.

However, offerors should be aware that the scope areas of the SHIELD contract do not include “Advisory and Assistance Services” or “Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance”. These areas are defined in the draft RFP as follows:

Proposal responses and evaluation criteria

The MDA SHIELD proposal response consists of two volumes.

1. Volume I — Administrative Submission
2. Volume II — Technical

Volume I consists of typical administrative proposal response items, such as a

• Signed Standard Form 33 (SF33),
• Cover letter addressing the required content per FAR 52.215-1(c)(2) paragraphs (i)-(v),
• Indication if the offeror has a Facility Clearance Level (Note: a FCL is not required, but awardees without one will be limited in what task orders they can bid on)
• Section K representations and certifications
• Bankruptcy/adverse financial information
• Proof of financial capability and stability
• Foreign ownership disclosure
• Conflict of interest form
• Small business subcontracting plan (Note: if an offeror is an other than small business (OTSB) in any of the 40 applicable SHIELD NAICS codes, then a small business subcontracting plan is required)

Volume II, the technical volume, consists of a single evaluation factor — corporate experience — which requires the offeror to complete a six-page attachment (Attachment L-03 Offeror Response Template) with a minimum of two, but no more than three relevant experience projects demonstrating prior experience in at least two of the 19 in-scope areas related to a missile defense or similarly related application. The Offeror Response Template is the sole document of acceptance for demonstrating relevant project experience and must outline the following:

• Applicable scope area(s) pertaining to Section C of the solicitation
• Whether experience is for the offeror or other member (i.e., joint venture, subcontractor, etc.)
• Role in the project with percentages of work completed vs subcontracted
• Contract number and associated details, award and/or completion date and contract type
• Detailed description of the experience and its relevance to the solicitation requirements
• Signature by contracting officer (CO) or representative, if an FPDS record is not provided

The projects listed in the Offeror Response Template do not need to meet any minimum project value requirements. However, the projects must meet a recency requirement of within five years from the date of the solicitation. Volume II (Technical) will be evaluated and rated as “Acceptable” or “Unacceptable”. An “Unacceptable” rating will result in the offeror being ineligible for award.

MDA intends to make an award to each and all qualifying offerors. A qualifying offeror is an offeror that is determined to be a responsible source, submits a technically acceptable proposal that conforms to the requirements of the solicitation, and the CO “has no reason to believe” the offeror would be likely to offer other than fair and reasonable pricing.

Teaming arrangements and joint ventures

The draft solicitation is explicit in allowing joint venture offerors. In these scenarios, only the joint venture itself and none of the individual parties will have direct privity with the government.

However, the draft solicitation does not clarify whether an offeror can consist of a prime/subcontractor teaming arrangement. There is also no clear guidance on whether an offeror can leverage experience and capabilities from a parent company or affiliate via a meaningful relationship commitment letter (MRCL).

Small business subcontracting goals

The MDA provided explicit small business subcontracting goals:

• Small business = 30%
• Small disadvantaged business (SDB) = 5%
• Women-owned small business (WOSB) = 5%
• Historically underutilized business zone (HUBZone) = 3%
• Service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) = 5%
• AbilityOne = 0%

Offerors that represent as OTSB in any of the 40 NAICS codes listed in the solicitation attachment must provide a small business subcontracting plan with their proposal response.

Other unique proposal requirements

While this is just the first draft of MDA SHIELD, it is interesting to note that there is no mention of offerors having to provide any of the following information.

• Cost or price detail
• Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) or past performance questionnaires (PPQs)
• Staffing plans
• Organizational conflict of interest plan
• Cybersecurity supply chain risk management (C-SCRM) plan/questionnaire
• Professional employee compensation plan
• Uncompensated overtime policy
• MRCL

While this may change with future iterations, it appears that the MDA is looking to remove as many barriers to entry for prospective contractors looking to get onto SHIELD.

How to prepare for MDA SHIELD

1. Identify potentially relevant experience projects

Work with key personnel in contracts, finance or program management to find as many projects as possible that meet the criteria provided in the draft RFP.

2. Begin accumulating documents

The administrative burden associated with these proposals is significant. We recommend beginning to accumulate the following documentation:

• Review the required administrative items in the draft RFP, begin compiling the relevant information (such as company financials) and develop responses for the required forms.
• For relevant experience projects, identify and organize all contract award documents, statements of work and contract modifications. Make sure the contract documents are signed by the cognizant contracting officer.

3. Assign roles and determine responsibilities

To avoid confusion when the solicitation is released, it is best to get the personnel question answered first:

• Who is responsible for checking SAM.gov for any pre-solicitation updates?
• Who will be the lead program sponsor, contracts manager, finance manager and proposal manager?
• Who will communicate the status of MDA SHIELD to leadership?
• Does your team need to outsource support to ensure a compliant proposal?

4. Assess the risk/benefit of all proposal strategies (e.g., contractor teaming arrangement (CTA), joint venture (JV))

Have a preliminary dialogue with possible JV organizations or prime contractors/subcontractors.

5. Read the draft RFP, gather firm-specific questions and monitor SAM.gov

Prospective offerors should read the first draft RFP and gather questions for future Q&A opportunities. The MDA suggested that the final SHIELD RFP will be released in Q4 of fiscal year 2025. The solicitation will be announced on SAM.gov, so prospective offerors should continue to monitor SAM.gov closely.