AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (ASTS) surged 6.79% in pre-market trading following the announcement that it has been awarded a prime contract position on the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program. This contract enables AST SpaceMobile to compete for future task orders related to research, development, engineering, prototyping, and operations of critical missile defense systems.
The SHIELD program is part of the broader Golden Dome strategy, which aims to build resilient, layered protection against various threats across multiple operational domains. The award validates AST SpaceMobile's dual-use technology and growing capabilities in the defense sector, sparking investor optimism about the company's future growth prospects in this high-stakes market.