Indefinite Delivery Contract HQ085926DF708

Ares Enterprise, LLC, a women-owned small business based in Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on December 29, 2025, under the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program. The contract has a ceiling value of $151 billion with a period of performance extending through December 28, 2035. This procurement employs full and open competition with no set-aside designations, allowing the government to issue multiple task orders to qualifying contractors. Under the contract terms, Ares Enterprise shall provide all necessary materials, labor, equipment, and facilities required for performance in accordance with individual task order specifications. The MDA structured this enterprise-wide contracting vehicle to enable rapid issuance of orders across both classified and unclassified programs, with the government intending to award to all responsible offerors who submit technically acceptable proposals demonstrating fair and reasonable pricing.

The SHIELD IDIQ contract supports the nation's comprehensive, multi-layered homeland defense strategy by procuring advanced capabilities for detecting, tracking, intercepting, and neutralizing air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats across all phases of flight. Work scope encompasses research and development, prototyping, disruptive technologies, systems engineering, weapon design, production, test and evaluation, cybersecurity, and modernization efforts. Individual task orders will leverage emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital engineering, and open systems architectures to address ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missile, and advanced aerial threats to the United States homeland, deployed forces, allies, and partners. The contract is structured to accommodate multiple NAICS codes and various contract types, with ordering periods extending across the ten-year performance window, positioning the SHIELD IDIQ as a flexible contracting mechanism for the Department of Defense's long-term investment in next-generation air and missile defense capabilities.