The Golden Dome, the Gambit of Trump’s administration to build a next generation missile defense system, has newly established businesses and long -term defense contractors preparing to give it a piece of $ 151 billion in many years.
The procedure for a $ 151 billion contract, essentially an umbrella program, is stacked against most newly established businesses – not because of their technology. Instead, smaller companies can be canceled by a multilevel, expensive bureaucratic process used to ensure that a company can meet the security requirements and other compliance.
Ultimately, the golden dome may not be the battle of zero sum of emerging technology over the established actors. The newly established companies that make a significant discovery will be those who are able to persuade the largest defense contractors to take them as subcontractors.
Pentagon rocket defense service was released last week a plan of attraction For a multi -award -winning $ 151 billion contract, the prelude to the upcoming defense technology that buy government technologies.
The 10 -year contract, called Shield, or a staggering homeland, innovative defense of the business, acts as an umbrella used to buy technology for the Golden Dome system. This program, which the White House likened the iron dome of Israel, will include systems that cover space, land and sea to protect the mainland United States from a variety of rocket threats.
In order to build this system, the government will try to buy a series of cutting -edge technology, such as space distorters, radar territories and land and marine systems capable of pulling a hostile rocket in flight. The first obstacle for companies hoping to win one of the contracts is to qualify for the umbrella or vehicle program.
Entrance to the vehicle $ 151 billion does not guarantee federal dollars. Instead, companies will compete for employment contracts on individual work orders. The final request for proposals will be released at some point in the fourth quarter of this year, although This has not stopped companies already starting their efforts to exert pressure.
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Bryce Dabbs, Managing Director of Venture Counseling Company, told TechCrunch that he estimates that between 5% and 10% of the pot could realistically go to non-traditional suppliers-not from the newly established businesses who compete as a primary contractor, but rather through Example, SpaceX and Anduril, supported by Venture Capital, are already on the scale of the small initials and the opportunity for smaller newly established businesses will probably look significantly different.
A starting with an exciting technology should work with a defender, such as Northrop Grumman or Lockheed, to provide a skill that Prime does not offer home today.
This is due to the fact that many early stage companies do not have liquidation of facilities, staff, IT security or other requirements for the execution of high-class government labor-and the pre-representation has warned that these obstacles at the entrance would be in force for potential suppliers.
Companies supported by the business such as Anduril and SpaceX will be able to meet these security and compliance requirements, but everyone else will probably need to undergo under a championship to compete.
Dabbs said his business sees earlier stations reporting Golden Dome on their decks and that the program is often referred to when VCs curate the supporting supports of the newly established. But investors “may not fully understand how government supplies or larger contracts work,” he said.
Meanwhile, the most mature and rich in cash -like companies such as SpaceX and Anduril are better ready to compete with Legacy Defense Recoldors, such as RTX (formerly Raytheon), Lockheed Martin, Boeing and L3harris.
Reported Reuters Earlier this year that a team consisting of Spacex, Palantir and Anduril has already begun to meet with federal officials. Lockheed, meanwhile, launched a “Golden Dome for America” page on its website, stressing how it could contribute to the effort.
Away, not fair
William Greenwalt, a senior associate at the American Enterprise Institute and former Deputy Subjective of DOD Defense Industrial Policy, was less optimistic. “I am not shocked by the prospects for non -traditional to earn anything from it,” he said.
This is due to the structure of the contract, which is conducted under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Act on Competition in the Contracting Party (CICA).
While the “complete and open competition”, high -compliance standards keep the newcomers silently. Instead, Greenwalt said the program should be done as another OTA principle, which gives DOD greater flexibility to work with non -traditional suppliers and original capital opportunities.
“A Cica Idiq contract is about the stupid way to do this if you want innovation as it will exclude non -traditional from the offer.
Trump appointed General Michael Guetlein, the second in the mandate of the American space power, to promote the initiative. He will be responsible for finalizing the final architecture of the program, which the White House wants to be in force in just three short years. This timetable favors the technologies ready to grow now, they do not continue to process in R&D labs.
“Golden Dome is a bold and aggressive approach to hurry and protect the homeland from our opponents,” he said in May.
