Space Force officials declined to name winners of the first space-based missile defense prototypes for Golden Dome, further adding to the secrecy that has plagued the project.
Multiple contracts were awarded to several companies under a competitive “other transaction agreement,” a Space Force spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Contracts under $9 million and those classified as “other transaction agreements” are not subject to federal acquisition disclosure requirements.
“The selection process was robust and thorough. The Space Force will lead a fast-paced effort in partnership with industry to develop, demonstrate, and deliver prototype interceptors,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The names of the contractors are currently not releasable as they are protected by enhanced security measures.”
Reuters reported that Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, True Anomaly, and Anduril, were among the companies who netted the awards to develop interceptors to shoot down a missile in its initial launch phase. Defense experts have raised concerns about the secrecy that’s followed Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order initiating the sprawling missile defense initiative. The lack of communication has also led to flurries of questions as the military solicits ideas from industry.
Previously reported details from a July Pentagon presentation suggest the awards were somewhere around $120,000, which would be well below the disclosure threshold required by federal guidelines.
“It must have been a very small amount of money since they aren’t required to report it,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
Winners of those small awards will then compete down the line for more lucrative contracts potentially worth billions of dollars. While progress on space-based interceptors continues, Tom Karako, the Center for Strategic and International Studies missile defense project director, argued in an opinion piece earlier this month that Congress, industry, and the American public still need more information about Golden Dome. He wrote that support is crucial, but informing those groups is more difficult amid communication restrictions tied to the project’s rollout imposed by the Pentagon.
“The Golden Dome initiative will be real and durable when its logic is understood on a broad, bipartisan, public basis,” Karaoke wrote. “Such understanding can be achieved, but it will require a communication campaign.”
Other CSIS experts like Heather Williams, the think tank’s project on nuclear issues director, said the lack of details has led to attention from America’s allies and enemies, too.
“In the absence of more information, not just our adversaries but also our allies, are going to have a lot of questions about, what is Golden Dome,” Williams said during a Nov. 19 event.
Cost estimates for Golden Dome have varied greatly, with the Congressional Budget Office in May estimating a price tag ranging from $542 billion to $831 billion over 20 years. Harrison, in a September report, said costs could range from $252 billion to more than ten times that.
The defense industry is also curious about the massive project. An October deadline for a Missile Defense Agency proposal for an up-to-$151 billion, 10-year indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery contract for Golden Dome was pushed back after “over 1,500 questions from industry” followed, Defense One previously reported.
Following this week’s initial awards, the Space Force is marching forward with other Golden Dome-related contracts. On Thursday, the service posted a presolicitation notice on SAM.gov seeking prototype ideas for a space-based “kinetic midcourse interceptor,” meaning something that would destroy a missile mid-flight with a direct collision, not an explosive warhead.
The Space Force plans to issue that prototype request Dec. 7, the notice said. Similar to the contract awards for the other interceptors this week, they will be under a competitive other transaction agreement.
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