Forward Edge-AI announced today that it has been selected as one of the Prime Contractor awardees under the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Multiple Award Agreement (MAA) contract vehicle.
Forward Edge-AI is the company behind Isidore Quantum®, the FIPS 140-3–certified hardware platform delivering the world’s first drop-in post-quantum cybersecurity solution successfully tested across air, land, sea, and space by the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force, and major commercial partners such as Microsoft and Lumen. The news comes one day after the company announced customers in Taiwan and a fifth patent.
The SHIELD program represents one of the Department of War’s (DoW) most ambitious modernization efforts, focused on building a next-generation, multi-domain, layered defensive architecture that can detect, track, and defeat advanced missile, hypersonic, cruise-missile, UAV, cyber, and hybrid threats across all phases of flight. The SHIELD MAA serves as a cornerstone of the emerging Golden Dome initiative, an envisioned nationwide defensive network that integrates government, commercial, and dual-use technologies to rapidly deliver new capabilities to the warfighter.
Under the SHIELD contract, Forward Edge-AI will compete for task orders in multiple advanced technology areas aligned with MDA’s Section C Work Areas, including:
Science & Technology (2.1): Advancing foundational innovations in AI, sensing, automation, and human–machine teaming to accelerate next-generation defensive concepts.
Research & Development (2.2): Developing applied R&D prototypes and breakthrough AI systems supporting multi-domain missile-defense missions.
Prototyping (2.3): Rapidly building, integrating, and iterating prototype systems that transition emerging concepts to field-ready capabilities.
Disruptive Technologies (2.5): Introducing game-changing capabilities such as autonomous AI agents, resilient sensing, and cognitive-EW techniques that counter evolving threat vectors.
Data Mining, Collection & Analysis (2.17): Applying AI-driven analytics to fuse disparate data streams, enhance threat characterization, and increase decision advantage.
Cybersecurity (2.19): Delivering secure-by-design architectures, zero-trust implementations, and threat-hunting capabilities essential to SHIELD’s multi-domain environment.
Isidore Quantum has been tested and validated in 30 pilots across the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force, and the private sector, achieving <0.5 millisecond latency and up to 800 Gbps throughput. The device consumes less than 9 watts of power, operates silently without fans, and is exportable under license exception.
The SHIELD IDIQ carries a $151B ceiling and a 10-year ordering period, enabling MDA and other DoW components to rapidly acquire innovative technologies that strengthen the nation’s layered defensive posture.
Forward Edge-AI’s selection reinforces the company’s position as a trusted provider of advanced AI, cyber defense, and rapid innovation solutions in direct support of national security.
Related
This entry was posted on December 4, 2025 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Forward Edge AI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Forward Edge-AI wins MDA SHIELD contract, ships first PQC hardware, enters center of DoD’s quantum-security race
Forward Edge-AI announced today that it has been selected as one of the Prime Contractor awardees under the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Multiple Award Agreement (MAA) contract vehicle.
Forward Edge-AI is the company behind Isidore Quantum®, the FIPS 140-3–certified hardware platform delivering the world’s first drop-in post-quantum cybersecurity solution successfully tested across air, land, sea, and space by the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force, and major commercial partners such as Microsoft and Lumen. The news comes one day after the company announced customers in Taiwan and a fifth patent.
The SHIELD program represents one of the Department of War’s (DoW) most ambitious modernization efforts, focused on building a next-generation, multi-domain, layered defensive architecture that can detect, track, and defeat advanced missile, hypersonic, cruise-missile, UAV, cyber, and hybrid threats across all phases of flight. The SHIELD MAA serves as a cornerstone of the emerging Golden Dome initiative, an envisioned nationwide defensive network that integrates government, commercial, and dual-use technologies to rapidly deliver new capabilities to the warfighter.
Under the SHIELD contract, Forward Edge-AI will compete for task orders in multiple advanced technology areas aligned with MDA’s Section C Work Areas, including:
Science & Technology (2.1): Advancing foundational innovations in AI, sensing, automation, and human–machine teaming to accelerate next-generation defensive concepts.
Research & Development (2.2): Developing applied R&D prototypes and breakthrough AI systems supporting multi-domain missile-defense missions.
Prototyping (2.3): Rapidly building, integrating, and iterating prototype systems that transition emerging concepts to field-ready capabilities.
Disruptive Technologies (2.5): Introducing game-changing capabilities such as autonomous AI agents, resilient sensing, and cognitive-EW techniques that counter evolving threat vectors.
Data Mining, Collection & Analysis (2.17): Applying AI-driven analytics to fuse disparate data streams, enhance threat characterization, and increase decision advantage.
Cybersecurity (2.19): Delivering secure-by-design architectures, zero-trust implementations, and threat-hunting capabilities essential to SHIELD’s multi-domain environment.
Isidore Quantum has been tested and validated in 30 pilots across the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force, and the private sector, achieving <0.5 millisecond latency and up to 800 Gbps throughput. The device consumes less than 9 watts of power, operates silently without fans, and is exportable under license exception.
The SHIELD IDIQ carries a $151B ceiling and a 10-year ordering period, enabling MDA and other DoW components to rapidly acquire innovative technologies that strengthen the nation’s layered defensive posture.
Forward Edge-AI’s selection reinforces the company’s position as a trusted provider of advanced AI, cyber defense, and rapid innovation solutions in direct support of national security.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on December 4, 2025 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Forward Edge AI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.