WASHINGTON - Engineering and defense contractor KBR announced 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 is increasing internal investment in modeling, simulation, prototyping and secure facilities for testing and integration.

KBR is among hundreds of companies selected for the Missile Defense Agency's Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract, a multiple-award vehicle 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 from multiple suppliers. KBR is targeting the engineering and integration work needed to connect these systems across military services, combatant commands and federal agencies, with focus areas including data integration, modeling and simulation, threat analysis, space-based sensing, counter-drone systems and directed energy.

KBR promoted Daniel Dant to vice president of strategic initiatives to lead its Golden Dome pursuit. Dant served 26 years in the Air Force, including as commander of the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base and 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 strategy. Lennon is a 25-year Air Force veteran managing KBR's national-security and defense technology portfolio. KBR said it has increased R&D spending this year on digital engineering, prototyping, modeling, simulation, laboratories and classified facilities, which would allow government agencies and contractors to test technologies without committing to a single supplier.