BiC-1 Best in Class

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is launching the Multiple Award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. This initiative supports a long-term strategy to give MDA and other Department of Defense (DoD) organizations a flexible and efficient way to issue task orders. The contract is designed to advance national defense goals by delivering layered protection against a wide range of threats, including air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats.

MDA SHIELD contracts can be utilized by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) as well as other components within the Department of Defense (DoD).

This includes military services, defense agencies, and other authorized DoD organizations that need a flexible and rapid contracting vehicle to acquire technologies and services supporting missile defense and broader national security missions.

MDA SHIELD promotes fair competition among vendors through several standard federal contracting practices built into its multiple-award IDIQ structure managed by the Missile Defense Agency:

• Multiple-award structure: More than one vendor is selected for the IDIQ pool, ensuring an ongoing competitive environment rather than relying on a single contractor.
• Fair Opportunity to Compete (FOTC): Under each task order, all qualified contract holders are generally given a fair opportunity to compete for work, rather than awarding orders non-competitively.
• Task order competitions: Requirements are issued as individual task orders, which are competed among eligible SHIELD contract holders based on the specific scope, allowing vendors to bid on opportunities aligned with their capabilities.
• Defined evaluation criteria: Task orders typically use clearly stated evaluation factors (e.g., technical approach, cost/price, past performance), helping ensure transparent and objective selection.
• Contractual governance: The IDIQ framework follows Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) guidelines and DoD acquisition policies, which require transparency, documentation, and equitable treatment of offerors.

Together, these mechanisms help ensure that vendors have equal and repeated opportunities to compete for work while allowing the government to select the best value solution for each requirement.