AI Security Firm Tapped for $151B 'Golden Dome' Missile Defense

AUSTIN, TX – January 06, 2026 – In a move that underscores the growing importance of artificial intelligence in national security, Austin-based AI security firm HiddenLayer has been selected as an awardee on the Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) monumental Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract. The multiple-award contract vehicle, with a ceiling value of $151 billion, is a cornerstone of the Department of Defense's ambitious “Golden Dome” initiative, aimed at rapidly fielding innovative technologies to protect the U.S. homeland.

HiddenLayer’s selection highlights a critical shift in defense strategy: as AI becomes the brain behind next-generation weapon systems, securing those AI models against sophisticated cyber threats is no longer an option, but a mission-critical imperative. The company, a Gartner-recognized Cool Vendor, specializes in protecting AI systems in the most sensitive and isolated environments.

The New Digital Battlefield: Securing AI in National Defense

The integration of artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming modern warfare, promising to accelerate decision-making in everything from missile tracking to command and control. However, this reliance also opens a new front for digital warfare. AI models themselves are vulnerable to a new class of threats, including data poisoning, model evasion, and intellectual property theft, which could have devastating consequences in a defense context.

“This award reflects the Department of Defense's recognition that securing AI systems, particularly in highly-classified environments, is now mission-critical,” said Chris “Tito” Sestito, CEO and Co-founder of HiddenLayer, in a statement. “As AI becomes increasingly central to missile defense, command and control, and decision-support systems, securing these capabilities is essential.”

The global AI in government market was valued at nearly $24 billion in 2025 and is projected to surge to over $85 billion by 2030, with North America leading the investment. This rapid adoption has security experts on high alert, with recent studies showing that over 90% of security leaders anticipate daily AI-driven attacks. This contract signals the DoD’s proactive stance in confronting this emerging threat landscape head-on.

A Glimpse Inside the 'Golden Dome' and SHIELD

The SHIELD IDIQ serves as the primary acquisition engine for the Golden Dome initiative, a proposed multi-layered missile defense system for the United States. The initiative envisions an integrated “system of systems” capable of defending the homeland against a spectrum of aerial threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles. To achieve this, the DoD requires the ability to rapidly integrate cutting-edge commercial technologies.

The SHIELD contract, with over 2,100 awardees ranging from defense giants like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to specialized tech firms like Google and HiddenLayer, is designed for precisely this purpose. It creates a vast ecosystem of pre-vetted industry partners, allowing the MDA to issue task orders with speed and agility.

Within this vast ecosystem, HiddenLayer occupies a unique and vital niche. While other contractors may develop the AI models that power tracking systems or autonomous platforms, HiddenLayer’s role is to provide the security layer that ensures those models operate as intended, free from tampering or adversarial manipulation. The company’s selection was based on its successful past performance on contracts with the DoD and the U.S. Intelligence Community.

The Airgapped Advantage: Security for Classified Environments

Central to HiddenLayer’s offering for the defense sector is its Airgapped AI Security Platform, the first solution of its kind designed to protect AI models and development processes within fully classified, disconnected environments. “Airgapped” systems are physically isolated from unsecured networks, a fundamental security posture for protecting the nation’s most sensitive data and operations.

The platform’s architecture is uniquely suited for these demanding environments. It is deployed locally within a customer's secure perimeter, ensuring complete data isolation. Crucially, the technology is non-invasive; its patented machine learning-based approach analyzes AI model events in real-time to detect malicious activity without requiring access to the sensitive training data or the proprietary algorithms of the models themselves.

This approach delivers comprehensive protection across the entire AI lifecycle, from securing the supply chain against tainted open-source models to providing runtime defense against active attacks. The effectiveness of its technology is validated by commercial adoption, including by Microsoft, which uses HiddenLayer’s Model Scanner to inspect open-source models in its Azure AI catalog for vulnerabilities and malicious code.

“By operating in fully disconnected environments, the Airgapped AI Security Platform provides the peace of mind that comes with complete control,” Sestito stated. “This release is a milestone for advancing AI security where it matters most: government, defense, and other mission-critical use cases.”

A Proven Partner in a Burgeoning Market

HiddenLayer is not a newcomer to the federal space. Its selection for the SHIELD contract was built upon a foundation of existing work with the Department of Defense. The company previously secured a $1.25 million Direct-to-Phase II contract in 2023 and a subsequent $1.8 million STTR Phase II contract in 2024 from AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force. These projects focused on implementing its Machine Learning Security (MLSec) Platform to protect Air Force AI systems, establishing the company as a trusted partner in securing critical defense assets.

This award places HiddenLayer at the forefront of a strategic pivot in defense procurement. As AI systems become more autonomous and integral to national security, the ability to trust and protect them is paramount. The SHIELD contract provides a vehicle for the MDA to rapidly deploy these essential security capabilities, accelerating innovation and bolstering the nation's layered defense architecture under the Golden Dome initiative. Performance under the contract will occur at locations designated by the Missile Defense Agency and its mission partners, bringing advanced AI security directly to the front lines of homeland defense.