ATA Engineering, Inc.

ATA Engineering, Inc., an employee-owned small business headquartered in San Diego, California, operates as a prime contractor (84% of recent awards) and subcontractor delivering aerospace and mechanical engineering services, multiphysics computational modeling, structural dynamics testing, and specialized engineering software licensing to federal research, space, and defense agencies. The company competes predominantly in full-and-open procurements on small business set-asides (Total Small Business is the recurring designation across SBIR, STTR, and select R&D vehicles) and holds no formal SBA certification beyond small-business status; it is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation.

ATA's customer base concentrates heavily on NASA and the Department of Defense. By award count, NASA's Shared Services Center, Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Johnson Space Center, and Naval Air Warfare Center account for 53% of recent awards. By potential value, the top five customers account for 79% of combined potential dollars, with NASA Johnson Space Center alone anchoring $74.6 million across 24 awards—primarily delivery orders under the $9.5 million Specialized Engineering, Aeronautics, and Manufacturing (SEAM2) indefinite delivery contract. The Air Force Research Laboratory follows with $23 million across 46 awards, predominantly SBIR and STTR Phase I and Phase II research contracts in hypersonic systems, thermal protection system modeling, and flight dynamics analysis. Naval Air Warfare Center and Naval Strategic Systems Programs deliver $11 million and $5.4 million respectively in multiphysics and propulsion R&D work. This customer concentration reflects ATA's strategic footprint: human spaceflight systems, hypersonic vehicle research, missile defense technologies, and advanced materials characterization for defense platforms.

ATA holds multiple government-wide and agency vehicles. The company was awarded seats on the OASIS+ Small Business IDIQ (December 2024, placeholder ceiling, five-year base through December 2029) and the OASIS+ Unrestricted IDIQ (December 2024, placeholder ceiling), enabling it to compete across seven functional domains governmentwide. It holds the newly awarded Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) IDIQ from the Missile Defense Agency (December 2025, $151 billion ceiling through December 2035) with an initial task order of five hundred dollars. At NASA, ATA maintains a $700,000 structural dynamics engineering blanket purchase agreement with Armstrong Flight Research Center (effective through January 2028, six recent BPA calls for ground vibration test calibration services averaging $32 thousand each) and a $600,000 single-award indefinite delivery contract with Johnson Space Center for Bigelow Expandable Activity Module engineering support through 2030. A recently awarded $1.6 million Kennedy Space Center BPA (September 2026) provides subject-matter expert support for NASA Launch Services Program and NASA-sponsored missions through September 2031. The $2 million Armstrong structural engineering support BPA (October 2023) delivers call orders for flight-vehicle structural analysis.

Recent capability examples ground ATA's portfolio in concrete government work. A $999,729 STTR Phase II with Defense Logistics Agency (April 2026, through April 2028) covers digital engineering-supported characterization and evaluation of RF aperture materials. A $1.994 million Missile Defense Agency SBIR Phase II (September 2025, through September 2027) develops machine learning-accelerated lethality assessment frameworks for hypersonic directed-energy engagements. An $849,737 NIH STTR Phase II (February 2025, through February 2028) addresses 3D automated anisotropic metric-based mesh adaption for hypersonic computational fluid dynamics. An $88,848 NASA JSC delivery order (January 2024) performed structural investigation of WB-57F aircraft. A $1.799 million Air Force Research Laboratory SBIR Phase II (October 2024, through January 2027) titled "RAPID AI-Powered Trajectory Optimization for Resupply (RAPTOR)" develops AI-powered trajectory optimization for resupply operations. Multiple recent awards for FEMAP and NASTRAN software licensing and renewal—including a $107,691 NASA Shared Services Center sole-source award (August 2024) and a $110,050 NASA FY25 FEMAP renewal (August 2025)—reflect ATA's established role as a specialized software and calibration-services partner to NASA centers.

ATA operates predominantly as a prime; 84% of recent awards are prime contracts or IDIQs, with 16% as subcontract work. Across SCI-reportable service contracts, ATA subcontracts to other primes rather than building internal delivery teams on those vehicles: average sub-hours share is 0% on its own prime SCI contracts, meaning ATA performs the work directly. The subcontractor role places ATA under major primes including Boeing (Space Launch System Stages Production), Northrop Grumman (Stand-in Attack Weapon, anti-access/area denial systems), United Launch Alliance (cryogenic propulsion strength analysis and integrated upgrades), Lockheed Martin (NGI development), BAE Systems (pulsed and continuous wave modeling and simulation), Leidos (Cargo Mission Contract), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Air National Guard HVAA pod services), and Battelle Memorial Institute (carbon/carbon composites manufacturing variability reduction). Named sub-awards from recent months center on structural analysis, modal testing, propulsion systems integration, and advanced materials characterization—capabilities that complement ATA's prime R&D footprint.

Award activity shows growth through 2024 (peak of 32 awards) followed by a moderation to 20 awards in 2025 and 13 year-to-date in 2026, reflecting the forward pace typical of SBIR/STTR program cycles rather than decline. Twelve awards carrying $10.7 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure primarily in SBIR Phase II continuations and task orders against NASA structural dynamics and software-licensing vehicles. SCI reporting shows minimal invoiced revenue captured in the dataset—$0 across FY2022–FY2025 on SCI-reportable prime records—indicating that ATA's federal revenue is predominantly composed of R&D contracts (SBIR, STTR, and DARPA awards), software licensing, and engineering services below the $150,000 SCI reporting threshold or excluded from SCI scope (product sales, micro-purchases, classified work).

ANALYSIS/TEST DRIVEN DESIGN, MODAL AND GROUND VIBRATION TESTING, THERMAL, STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, FLUTTER & COMPOSITE STRUCTURES ANALYSIS, FATIGUE TESTING & ANALYSIS, TEST/ANALYSIS CORRELATION, TRAINING-TEST & ANALYSIS, OPTIMIZATION, SOFTWARE INTEGRATION