Jane Edwards 
Parallel Wireless has won a position on the Missile Defense Agency’s potential 10-year, $151 billion Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense, or SHIELD, contract.
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The company said Thursday the award offers opportunities to advance technologies in high-bandwidth and low-latency mesh networks.
In a LinkedIn post, Lizy Paul, vice president of U.S. federal business and operations at Parallel Wireless, said the company is proud to be part of the MDA SHIELD contract. She also thanked the team and key industry partners for their collaboration, including Northrop Grumman, Integrity Defense Solutions, Nexcepta, DeepSig, Stephenson Stellar, IQM Research Institute, TEK & I Systems and SOFtact Solutions.
“We are committed to advancing innovation for United States protecting the homeland and our warfighters,” Paul added.
Steve Papa, founder and CEO of Parallel Wireless, said the company is committed to advancing U.S. national security and safeguarding the homeland through the SHIELD contract.
“SHIELD represents a critical element of our vision for enhancing defense multi-domain resilient connectivity, and we’re excited to bring our expertise to meet defense mission needs,” Papa noted.
What Is MDA SHIELD?
SHIELD is a flexible contract vehicle that enables MDA and other Department of War entities to rapidly compete for orders and accelerate the delivery of capabilities to warfighters.
MDA solicited proposals for the SHIELD indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract in September.
Through SHIELD, MDA intends to develop continuous, layered protection against air, missiles, space, cyber and hybrid threats. The agency also aims to advance the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled applications, model-based systems engineering, open systems architecture, digital engineering and agile processes to speed up the acquisition, development and sustainment of capabilities.
On Dec. 2, MDA established the competitive pool by awarding 1,014 companies spots on the SHIELD contract as part of the initial tranche of staggered awards. On Dec. 18, the agency added 1,086 vendors to the SHIELD competitive pool.
On Thursday, MDA awarded 340 additional spots on the SHIELD contract, expanding the pool to more than 2,400 awardees.
What Does Parallel Wireless Do?
Founded in 2012, Parallel Wireless provides dual-use, high-bandwidth, wireless end-to-end communications and networking platforms for customers.
The Nashua, New Hampshire-based company supports the Department of War by delivering multidomain, resilient network technologies that provide command and control and situational awareness capabilities for U.S. warfighters.
