The Missile Defense Agency awarded a multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract to Packet Digital LLC and other qualifying contractors on December 29, 2025, with a combined ceiling value of $151 billion and ultimate completion date of December 28, 2035. The Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract represents a 10-year enterprise-wide contracting vehicle designed to procure an advanced, multi-domain defense system capable of detecting, tracking, intercepting, and neutralizing air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats to the United States homeland, deployed forces, allies, and friends. The contract encompasses research and development, prototyping, disruptive technologies, systems engineering, weapon design, production, test and evaluation, cybersecurity modernization, and related efforts across all phases of ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile flight. The procurement utilizes full and open competition with no set-aside designations and leverages advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital engineering, and open systems architectures to support both classified and unclassified programs across multiple security domains.
Packet Digital LLC, a small business technology firm based in Fargo, North Dakota, specializing in advanced research and development for power management and electrical systems, received the initial delivery order under the SHIELD IDIQ on December 29, 2025, with a ceiling value of $500 and performance location in Huntsville, Alabama. The initial order, designated as "SHIELD Initial Order," is structured as a firm fixed-price delivery order under the broader indefinite delivery contract mechanism. The contract structure allows the Missile Defense Agency and other Department of Defense entities to rapidly issue subsequent task and delivery orders utilizing various contract types across multiple North American Industry Classification System codes, with individual orders potentially requiring different facility security clearances and classification levels based on specific national defense requirements.