Aptima Inc.

Aptima Inc., a Woburn, Massachusetts-based small business, delivers human-centered research, development, and engineering services focused on artificial intelligence, cognitive modeling, training systems, human-machine interaction, and performance analytics to defense and federal agencies as a prime contractor (98% of recent awards) and subcontractor. The company is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation with no SBA certifications; it competes predominantly in full-and-open federal R&D competitions and represents a significant research and development prime footprint across air, land, and sea domains.

Aptima's customer concentration sits overwhelmingly with the Department of the Navy and Department of the Air Force. The top five funding customers by potential value account for 97% of combined potential value, anchored by the Naval Sea Systems Command (39 awards, $13.35 billion combined potential value) through a $4 billion SeaPort-NXG multiple-award indefinite delivery contract awarded in January 2025 with an ultimate completion date of January 1, 2029. The Air Force (44 awards, $1.05 billion combined potential value), Naval Air Warfare Center (71 awards, $830.5 million combined potential value), Air Combat Command (4 awards, $307.9 million combined potential value), and Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (148 awards, $172.8 million combined potential value) round out the concentrated customer set. By award count, the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory leads (148 awards, $172.8 million), followed by Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command (127 awards, $79.6 million) and Office of Naval Research (107 awards, $67.1 million). The Navy's dollar dominance reflects the SeaPort-NXG vehicle and follow-on task orders; the Air Force's volume reflects numerous small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) phase awards.

Aptima's vehicle position centers on two major indefinite delivery platforms. The $4 billion Naval Sea Systems Command SeaPort-NXG contract, awarded January 2, 2025, enables streamlined task order issuance for research, development, and technical services across Navy commands. The newly awarded Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract, a $151 billion multiple-award indefinite delivery vehicle awarded December 29, 2025, positions Aptima to compete for multi-domain defense system development, prototyping, systems engineering, weapon design, production, test and evaluation, and modernization work through 2035. Aptima also holds a $10 million GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract (multiple-award, effective through March 14, 2029) and a newly awarded single-award Basic Ordering Agreement with Naval Air Warfare Center (effective September 30, 2025 through September 30, 2030, $0 ceiling, as-needed task order vehicle). The IDC 47QFLA19D0012 has generated 22 task orders ($170.7 million combined potential value); the Army IDIQ W911NF18D0003 has generated 18 task orders ($10.5 million combined potential value). These vehicles anchor the ability to place orders across defense agencies without conducting fresh competitions.

Activity grew from 23 awards in 2022 and 2023 to 36 in 2024, declining to 21 in 2025 and 4 in 2026 through the source date of July 15, 2026. Thirty awards (combined potential value $106.6 million) face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore represent recompete exposure for the vendor and recompete opportunity for competitors.

Aptima's work spans applied research, exploratory development, operational systems development, and basic research across R&D-focused PSC codes. Recent representative prime contracts include a $27.6 million DARPA SEMAFOR delivery order (awarded July 1, 2022, completion June 30, 2027) for advanced cognitive and performance analytics; a $24.99 million Air Force Research Laboratory Chief Modeling Simulation Office SBIR Phase III delivery order (awarded August 12, 2024, completion August 11, 2029) for modeling and simulation research; a $12.5 million Air Force Research Laboratory GRILL RPM modification (awarded August 14, 2025, completion September 29, 2029) for cost-plus-fixed-fee advanced research services; a $10.74 million Naval Air Systems Command Aviation Performance Proficiency Analytics delivery order (awarded December 15, 2024, completion March 13, 2029) for SBIR Phase III training performance analytics; a $9.8 million Office of the Chief of Staff delivery order (awarded July 21, 2023, completion July 20, 2028) for research on climate and harmful behavior prevention; and a $9.27 million Air Force Research Laboratory Proficiency-Based Training SBIR Phase III delivery order (awarded September 30, 2024, completion September 29, 2027). Aptima also holds multiple SBIR and STTR phase awards across Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA, and Defense Health Agency components, ranging from Phase I feasibility studies ($150 thousand to $250 thousand) through Phase II and Phase III full-scale development ($750 thousand to $4 million+). Recent phase awards include a $1.78 million Air Force Research Laboratory GOTCHA II SBIR Phase II contract for graph-based transformers (awarded July 18, 2025, completion July 18, 2027), a $1.5 million Office of the Secretary of Defense PLURITAS contract for teaching and simulation (awarded April 12, 2026, completion October 11, 2027), and a $1.19 million DARPA STTR Phase II contract (awarded January 1, 2026, completion December 31, 2026). A $249,999.74 Army contract for MUDSKIPPER quadruped robot locomotion (awarded April 13, 2026, completion October 12, 2026) and a $149,935 Defense Washington Headquarters Service SBIR Phase I contract (awarded August 28, 2025, completion February 28, 2026) exemplify smaller research initiatives. Two federal grant recipients name Aptima as a sub-recipient: Arizona State University's Center of Excellence for Accelerating Operational Efficiency (awarded December 11, 2024) and William Marsh Rice University's Next Generation Teams and Organizational Subsystems Research (awarded June 21, 2024).

Aptima subcontracts to defense primes in a minor footprint (2% of awards). Named subcontracting relationships include CAE USA Inc. for training and force readiness technologies (Applied Proficiency Technologies, Technologies for Force Readiness, and Multiscale Models for Cognitive Performance task orders), General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc. for funding and services (awarded May 23, 2024 and February 13, 2024), Systems & Technology Research LLC for Joint All-Domain Warfighting UI design (awarded June 12, 2023), and American Systems Corporation for P-8A Poseidon training system derivatives (awarded April 8, 2022).

Aptima's grant footprint centers on the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which has awarded two project grants: FUSIONSCI: Augmented Intelligence to Empower Interdisciplinary Research (awarded February 12, 2024, completion December 11, 2024) and ART-FM: Adversarial Red Teaming Framework to Reason About Foundation Model Behaviors at Scale (awarded July 22, 2024, completion July 1, 2025).

The corporate structure includes Vigilife, Inc., listed as a named subsidiary and vendor receiving subcontract work from Aptima on Office of Naval Research research and development contracts. Aptima Puerto Rico, LLC appears as a division providing research, technology development, and engineering support across multiple contracts.

Aptima's research and development posture spans 255 awards under NAICS 541711 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences except Biotechnology), 201 awards under NAICS 541712 (same, except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology), and 76 awards under NAICS 541713 (Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities), reflecting a sustained emphasis on defense R&D innovation, human performance science, and applied research across all service branches and defense agencies.

human factors, usability, cognitive engineering, training, performance measurements