The Trump administration’s Gambet, Golden Dom, Startup and long -time defense contractors are preparing to build a $ 151 billion multiple -year agreement to build a missile defense system of the Trump administration.
The process of qualifying for a $ 151 billion contract vehicle, primarily an umbrella program, is mostly decorated against startups – not because of their tech. Instead, small companies can be thwarted by a multi -layer, expensive bureaucratic process that is used to ensure that the company can meet other security and other compliance requirements.
Finally, the Golden Dome cannot be a war against the emerging tech. Startup startups will be the ones who will be able to persuade the biggest defense contractors to take them as sub -contractors.
Pentagon’s missile defense agency released last week A draft request $ 151 billion, a multi -awards agreement, the government’s offering to buy the upcoming defense tech.
The 10 -year contract, called the Shield, or the Scale Homeland Defense of Modern Enterprise Layers, acts as an umbrella that will be used to buy technology for the Golden Dome system. The program, which the White House has attributed to Israel’s Iron Dome, will include systems that spread the place, land and sea to protect the continent from many missile threats to the United States.
The formation of this system, the government, is seeking to purchase a number of advanced technology, such as being able to extract enemy missiles in space -based interceptors, ground -based radars, and layered and sea -based systems. The first barrier for companies expecting one of the contracts is to qualify for the umbrella program, or the vehicle.
Going to a $ 151 billion car does not guarantee the federal dollar. Instead, companies will compete to work on individual task orders. The final application for the suggestions will be issued at some time in the fourth quarter of this year It has not prevented companies from starting their lobbying efforts already.
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Brace Debus, CEO of the consulting firm approach venture, told Tech Crunch that it estimates that between 5 % and 10 % of the vessel can go to realistic unconventional shopkeepers. For example, Space X and Andorle, while venture capital support, are already on a scale of small prime, and the opportunity for small start will look quite different.
A startup starting with forced technology will need to cooperate with defensive prime, such as Northrop Gromine or Lock Head so that it can provide the ability to provide the ability at the moment.
The reason for this is that many early stage companies lack the clearance, personnel, IT security, or other requirements to perform high-ranking government work-and the previous Sulleration has warned that the barriers to the admission will be for suppliers.
Venture -backed companies such as Andrell and Space X will meet these security and compliance requirements, but the competition will potentially need to be eliminated under a key location.
Debus said his firm is watching the founders of an early stage of the Golden Dome in their decks, and when the program is often referred to when the VCS start -up approach is supported. But investors “cannot fully understand how government purchases or major contracts work.”
Meanwhile, more mature and cash -rich startups, such as Space X and Andrew, are better ready to compete with Legacy Defense Contractors, such as RTX (former Ritheven), Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and L3 Horse.
Reuters reported Earlier this year, when a team comprising Space X, Planter and Andorl has already begun meeting with federal officials. Meanwhile, Lockheed launched the “Golden Dome for America” page on its website, which highlights how it can help in this endeavor.
Away, not fair
The former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Industrial Policy, William Green Walt Kim was hopeful at the US Enterprise Institute’s senior fellow and DOD. “I am not overwhelmed by the possibility of unconventional people to get something from it,” he said.
This is due to the contract structure, which is being run under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Competition in the Agreement Act (CICA).
Although the distant “complete and open competition” requires, the standard of high compliance maintains newcomers to newcomers. Instead, Green Walt said the program should be done as another transaction authority (OTA), which gives the DOD more flexibility to work with non -traditional shopkeepers and funds prototype with stroke on production opportunities.
“If you want innovation, a CICA contract is about a stupid way to do so, because it will prevent unconventional from bidding,” he said.
Trump appointed General Michael Gatlin, in the second command of the US Space Force to offer the move. He will be in charge of finalizing the program’s final architecture, which the White House wants to keep in place in just three short years. She supports timeline technologies who are now ready to be deployed, still not working in R&D labs.
“The Golden Dome is a bold and aggressive way to protect the country from our opponents,” he said in May.