Astro Machine Works Inc.

Astro Machine Works Inc., operating as Astro Machine Works, is a small business manufacturer of precision-machined components, custom fabricated metal parts, and specialized hardware for the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense, operating primarily as a prime contractor (91% of recent awards) under Total Small Business set-aside designations. Based in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, the company is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation that competes predominantly under small business set-asides and holds three significant indefinite delivery vehicles worth over $127 million combined with Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Air Warfare Center.

Astro Machine Works supplies gun weapon system components, rapid machining and assembly services, aircraft and weapons system parts, precision-turned products, and custom fabricated metal hardware to the Navy and allied defense agencies. Representative prime work includes a $72.6 million multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with Naval Sea Systems Command (awarded March 2022, completing March 2027) for Gun Weapon System components with delivery orders reaching up to $2.378 million for complex precision-machined assemblies; a $50 million multiple-award IDIQ with Naval Sea Systems Command (awarded May 2023, completing May 2028) for rapid machining and assembly services supporting shipbuilding and naval integration with task orders typically valued between $100 thousand and $400 thousand; and a $9 million single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement with Naval Air Warfare Center (awarded March 2023, completing March 2028) for aircraft and weapons system parts. Named deliverables span 105mm trainable gun mounts, access frame assemblies, antenna masts, acoustic attenuator assemblies, 76mm liner bushings, and coatings for naval platforms.

Customer concentration is extreme. The Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command dominates at 464 awards (66% of the total award count) with $268.8 million in combined potential value (87% of total), dwarfing all other customers. The Army Materiel Command Contracting Command Redstone Arsenal, the Navy Secretary's Office of Naval Research, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center together account for roughly 15% of awards. The top customer by dollars (NAVSEA) also leads by volume — the two concentration rankings align tightly, signaling deep, sustained single-customer dependence rather than diversification.

Astro Machine Works executes work under a roster of NAVSEA blanket purchase agreements, with the largest being N0017821A1603 (62 task orders, $9.9 million), N0017816A0004 (97 task orders, $5.8 million), and N0017811A4331 (125 task orders, $4.5 million). The top indefinite delivery vehicle by dollar value is IDC N0017817D0024 (30 task orders, $40.7 million combined potential value). Task order activity is consistent but modest in individual size, reflecting rapid-response procurement of machine shop and fabrication services against pre-competed vehicles rather than large engineering programs. The vendor's NAICS footprint centers on precision turned product manufacturing (392 awards), machine shops (73 awards), and miscellaneous fabricated metal manufacturing (52 awards); PSC coding emphasizes hardware commercial and weapon system hardware.

Activity has grown steadily — 24 awards in 2022 to 56 in 2024, then moderating to 43 in 2025 — across 697 total prime and sub awards in the source data. The vendor's subcontractor footprint is secondary but growing: recent sub work includes machined parts and enclosure assemblies for L3Harris Nexgen Communications under Navy prototype development, fabrication support for Bowhead Professional Solutions on engineering prototype services, metal fabrication for Science Applications International Corporation on the DART system recapitalization, and various design and fabrication tasks under Caci Inc. Federal, Northrop Grumman Systems, Peraton, and others on space exploration and naval engineering programs. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Peraton, and Northrop Grumman are the most frequent primes in the sub-award list, reflecting Astro's role as a machining and fabrication supplier to larger systems integrators.

Recompete risk is concentrated. Three large indefinite delivery vehicles anchoring the NAVSEA relationship reach expiration in the 2027–2028 window, exposing roughly $122 million in combined potential value to competitive recompete. A smaller BPA with Naval Air Warfare Center expires March 2028. Given the vendor's small business designation, these vehicles are reserved for small business competition only, but the breadth of Astro's technical footprint — spanning gun weapon systems, rapid machining, aircraft integration, and specialized hardware — positions it as an established incumbent in the Navy's supplier base. Astro has been registered in SAM.gov since 2003 and has delivered consistently on small business set-aside contract vehicles to NAVSEA for over a decade, supporting rapid procurement of custom-engineered components for naval shipbuilding, weapons systems integration, and related maritime defense programs.