Cross-Enterprise AI Leader Selected to Advance Defense Strategies for Golden Dome Initiative

r4 Federal, the defense-focused operating unit of r4 Technologies, announced it has been selected as an awardee on the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle, with an estimated ceiling value of $151 billion supporting the Golden Dome Initiative.

The SHIELD program is central to MDA’s mission to accelerate the development, integration, and sustainment of layered defenses protecting the United States from evolving missile and aerial threats. Through SHIELD, MDA can rapidly deploy advanced capabilities to detect, track, and defeat threats ranging from ballistic and hypersonic missiles to emerging airborne systems, while maintaining readiness at scale.

r4 Federal brings cross-enterprise AI purpose-built for defense challenges, creating “decision advantage” by helping commanders and planners move faster from fragmented data to actionable insight. The company’s focus is on “decomplexifying” operational systems across maintenance, logistics, supply chain, personnel, operations, and other essential services and support—surfacing risk earlier and strengthening “decision advantage” where it matters most.

“Effective missile defense is, at its core, a sustainment and readiness challenge, not just a technical one,” said Retired Navy Rear Admiral Mark Heinrich, CEO of DPRA and President of r4 Federal. "Through SHIELD, r4 Federal’s predictive AI can helps the Missile Defense Agency maintain a high degree of readiness and move faster from data to decision across the breadth of Integrated Logistics elements that are required to keep critical systems operating smoothly so that they aren’t just effective on a test day, but survivable on the worst day.”

If all contract options are exercised, work supporting new technologies and capabilities aligned to the Golden Dome initiative may continue through December 2035.

Following its acquisition of DPRA, Inc., r4 Technologies has expanded how its enterprise AI platform is applied across defense missions. Through r4 Federal, these combined capabilities support force readiness and operational resilience at scale—strengthening national security through the responsible application of commercial AI.

About r4 Technologies, Inc.

r4 Technologies, Inc, created in 2013 by the founders of Priceline, is the pioneer of Cross-Enterprise AI. Organizations across commercial and public sectors deploy r4’s AI technology platform to put Decision Advantage in the hands of business users to drive action. The company is based in Ridgefield, CT with operations in New York City, Toronto, Dublin, Austin, Knoxville, Manhattan, KS, and Lawton, OK.

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