Black Swift Technologies LLC

Black Swift Technologies LLC, a Boulder, Colorado-based small business and manufacturer of small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS), operates as a prime contractor on federal R&D and procurement awards focused on environmental monitoring, scientific data gathering, and UAS platform development. The company competes predominantly under Total Small Business set-asides across its SBIR portfolio and holds a $9.9 million single-award IDIQ with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded in February 2026.

Black Swift specializes in designing and delivering ruggedized unmanned aircraft platforms, payloads, sensors, and field operations support for scientific missions in harsh or remote environments. Concrete capability work spans volcanic monitoring systems, wildfire infrared measurement and tracking, soil moisture survey platforms equipped with L-band radiometers, runway integrity validation through aerial sensing, and all-weather UAS for unattended environmental observation. Representative prime work includes a $753,500 NOAA purchase order (awarded February 2026) for SUAS operational and technical support services under the company's new IDIQ; a $1.25 million Air Force Research Laboratory Phase II SBIR for runway integrity validation through soil moisture measurement on small fixed-wing aircraft (awarded October 2023, completed July 2025); and a $779,465 NASA Phase II SBIR for development of a ruggedized UAS for scientific data gathering in harsh environments (awarded August 2022). The company also sells off-the-shelf SUAS platforms and components; a $89,844 NASA purchase order (September 2025) procured an S2 UAS flight system with wing components, tail boom, batteries, pneumatic launcher, and ground station for NASA Ames Research Center.

Customer concentration anchors heavily to two civilian research agencies accounting for 93% of recent awards. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration leads by potential value at $11.8 million across 16 awards, driven by the recently awarded $9.9 million IDIQ plus operational delivery orders and prior platform procurements. The NASA Shared Services Center ranks second in award count with 29 awards valued at $6.3 million combined, consisting primarily of SBIR Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III contracts spanning ruggedized UAS development, wildfire decision-support data assimilation, all-weather environmental observation platforms, and educational outreach support (AREN project). The Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (5 awards, $380 thousand) supports volcano monitoring surveys. The Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (3 awards, $1.4 million) has funded the runway-validation SBIR line and related development. A single $245,772 Office of Naval Research R&D contract (July 2025, Total Small Business set-aside) and a $242,540 Naval Air Warfare Center award (July 2025) represent defense exposure.

Black Swift holds one named parent vehicle: the NOAA single-award IDIQ (contract 1305M226D0012) awarded February 2026 with a $9.9 million ceiling and completion date of January 31, 2031. One $483,000 delivery order issued against this IDIQ on February 25, 2026. Recent activity shows a two-year decline from seven awards in 2022 and 2023 to two in 2024, then recovery to eight awards in 2025 and two in 2026 year-to-date. Five awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $1.8 million, representing a modest recompete exposure window. Black Swift maintains minimal subcontract presence in the source data; two sub-awards appear: a 2025 subaward from the University of Miami (CIMAS Renewal 2025–2030) and a 2023 subaward from the University of Colorado for S2 UAS deployment and soil moisture data processing in the East River Basin under a NOAA-sponsored project. The company's capability profile sits squarely in R&D and product manufacturing across NAICS 541712 (Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—30 awards) and 336411 (Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing—10 awards), with PSC work concentrated in Space R&D Services and Meteorological Instruments.