Indefinite Delivery Contract HQ085926DF320

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded a Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to IQM Research Institute under the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program, with a ceiling value of $151 billion and a period of performance through December 28, 2035. This is a full and open competition procurement with no set-asides, structured to support the nation's multi-layered defense requirements across air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threat domains. The contract encompasses research and development, prototyping, disruptive technologies, systems engineering, weapon design, production, test and evaluation, cybersecurity, and modernization efforts targeting detection, tracking, interception, and neutralization capabilities against advanced threats including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles. The contract vehicle is designed to leverage emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital engineering, and open systems architectures, with ordering authority extending across multiple security classifications and requiring appropriate facility clearances from ordering agencies.

IQM Research Institute, a non-profit research organization specializing in advanced computational technologies and artificial intelligence with a primary place of performance in Huntsville, Alabama, received the initial task order award on December 29, 2025, valued at five hundred dollars under firm fixed price terms. The contractor's expertise in cognitive architectures, autonomous systems, and adaptive artificial intelligence agents positions it to support MDA's technical requirements under this enterprise-wide contracting mechanism. As a registered federal vendor since 2014 with prior sub-contract experience supporting defense contractors including Raytheon Company and Assured Information Security on defense-related programs, and concurrent receipt of Office of Naval Research grants in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, IQM Research Institute brings specialized technical capabilities aligned with the SHIELD program's emphasis on advanced computational and autonomous defense technologies.