WASHINGTON — Engineering and defense contractor KBR said July 21 it is positioning its digital engineering, space surveillance and missile-defense businesses to compete for work on Golden Dome, the Trump administration’s planned multilayered defense against missile and aerial threats.
The Houston-based company has assigned two executives to lead the effort and said it is increasing internal investment in modeling, simulation, prototyping and secure facilities that could be used to test and integrate components developed for the sprawling defense architecture.
KBR is among hundreds of companies selected for the Missile Defense Agency’s Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense, or SHIELD, contract, a multiple-award vehicle through which the agency can issue task orders supporting Golden Dome and other missile-defense programs.
Golden Dome is expected to combine satellites, terrestrial and space-based sensors, communications networks, command-and-control software and interceptors supplied by multiple companies. KBR said it is targeting the engineering and integration work needed to connect those systems across the military services, combatant commands and federal agencies.
Its planned areas of focus include data integration, modeling and simulation, threat analysis, pace-based sensing, counter-drone systems and directed energy.
KBR promoted Daniel Dant to vice president of strategic initiatives to lead its pursuit of Golden Dome opportunities. Dant served 26 years in the Air Force, including as commander of the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base and as space policy director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Jay Lennon, president of KBR’s Mission Technology Solutions defense and intelligence division, will oversee the company’s Golden Dome strategy. Lennon is a 25-year Air Force veteran who manages KBR’s national-security and defense technology portfolio.
KBR said it has increased research-and-development spending this year on digital engineering, prototyping, modeling and simulation, laboratories and classified facilities. The company said the facilities would allow government agencies and contractors to test technologies and integrate systems without committing to a single equipment supplier.