- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Native Contracting
Twelve subsidiaries of Cherokee Federal have been named among recent awardees on the Missile Defense Agency’s Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award contract, according to a company announcement.
The Pentagon said Jan. 15 that it issued an additional 340 awards under SHIELD, following 1,014 awards announced Dec. 2, 2025, and 1,086 awards announced Dec. 18, bringing the total number of awardees to 2,440 out of 2,463 offers received. The multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract carries a $151 billion ceiling and could run through December 2035 if all options are exercised.
Importantly, no funding is obligated at the base IDIQ level. Federal spending under SHIELD will occur only through competitively awarded task orders, which the Missile Defense Agency has begun preparing through market research and draft Fair Opportunity Proposal Requests. Task-level awards — not the IDIQ on-ramp itself — will determine revenue, scope of work, and performance locations.
The Department of Defense has not issued a press release naming Cherokee Federal or any individual awardees. Its public contract notice frames SHIELD as a broad enterprise vehicle designed to allow MDA and other Defense Department components to rapidly complete work across engineering, cyber operations, intelligence, logistics, sustainment and mission support. The agency also highlighted anticipated use of artificial intelligence and machine-learning applications, digital engineering, open systems architectures and agile acquisition processes.
Cherokee Federal’s inclusion gives its subsidiaries the ability to compete for future missile defense-related task orders but does not guarantee work or funding. As of mid-January, no SHIELD task orders attributable to Cherokee Federal entities appear in publicly available federal spending databases.
For contractors, SHIELD represents long-term access to one of the Pentagon’s most expansive homeland defense acquisition vehicles. For investors and policymakers, its impact will hinge on how — and whether — those task orders translate into sustained, material awards over time.
