Caliola Engineering, LLC

Caliola Engineering, LLC, a Colorado Springs-based woman-owned small business, operates as a prime contractor on defense research and development and systems engineering programs, with 75% of recent awards in the prime role and 25% delivered as a subcontractor on satellite communications and information warfare platforms. The company competes across both small-business set-asides (Total Small Business, WOSB) and full-and-open vehicles, holding SBA Women-Owned Small Business certification and positioning itself across the federal R&D landscape primarily through Department of Defense innovation programs.

Caliola's capability portfolio centers on communications, networking, autonomy, cybersecurity, satellite technologies, and aerospace systems engineering, supported by active participation in the SBIR and STTR programs. Recent prime contract work includes a $56.5 million delivery order under OASIS SB with the Air Force for expert military satellite communications and NC3 architecture systems engineering across the AFNCW and NCL sustained military satellite communications systems (awarded September 2024, running through September 2029); a $1.4 million Naval Air Warfare Center SBIR Phase II award for advanced research and development (August 2025); two Marine Corps definitive contracts totaling $3 million for twice-encrypted multicast development and satellite antenna pointing positioning (both April 2026); a $1.25 million Air Force Research Laboratory STTR Phase II contract for Universal Short Forward Error Correction Codec development (July 2025); and a $1.17 million Office of Naval Research award for low-probability-of-detection waveform technology advancement to Technology Readiness Level 5 (April 2025). The company's research trajectory spans SBIR Phase I concept validation through Phase II development and prototyping work, with multiple Phase I and II awards spanning FY2021 through 2026 across Air Force Research Laboratory, Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Air Warfare Center, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, and the Missile Defense Agency.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward Department of Defense components. The top five funding customers account for 70% of awards by count, led by the Air Force Space Command Space and Missile Systems Center (18 awards), Air Force Research Laboratory (17 awards, $13.3 million combined potential value), Naval Air Systems Command (9 awards, $6 million), Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (8 awards, $9.7 million), and GSA Federal Acquisition Service (5 awards, $34.3 million). By combined potential value, the ranking diverges sharply: the Air Force Materiel Command Lifecycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base dominates at $46 billion across three awards (anchored by the Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract IDIQ), followed by Naval Sea Systems Command at $4 billion, the Air Force at $92.4 million, and GSA at $34.3 million. This divergence reflects massive multiple-award vehicle ceilings offset by smaller active task orders and definitive contracts across the SBIR/STTR base.

Caliola holds position on six named indefinite-delivery vehicles. The company sits on the Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract ($46 billion, Air Force Materiel Command, multiple award), the OASIS+ Total Small Business Set-Aside IDIQ ($999.999 billion ceiling, GSA, awarded December 2024, reserved for small businesses, running through December 2029), the OASIS+ Women-Owned Small Business IDIQ ($999.999 billion ceiling, GSA, awarded September 2024, running through September 2029), SEAPORT-NXG ($4 billion, Naval Sea Systems Command, awarded January 2025, running through January 2029), a Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) IDIQ ($151 billion ceiling, awarded December 2025, running through December 2035), and a Naval Air Warfare Center Basic Ordering Agreement for SBIR Phase III (awarded November 2024, running through November 2029). From the listed parent vehicles, Caliola has issued nine task orders under an Air Force indefinite-delivery contract (FA882320D0001), one task order under OASIS SB ($56.5 million), one under EWAAC ($1 thousand), one under a Multiple Award Schedule ($35.9 million), and one under SHIELD ($500). The magnitude gap between vehicle ceilings and task-order values reflects the nascent phase of activity on several large GWACs, particularly the recently awarded SHIELD and OASIS+ vehicles.

Subcontract work routes through Lockheed Martin on Protected Extremely High Frequency (PEH) Satellite Communications satellites and MILSTAR Block I/II sustainment support, with multiple funding actions from March 2022 through January 2025 spanning systems engineering, incremental funding, and travel for ICS Phase II and Phase III work. A secondary sub-award appears under Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for SSN/SSGN Survivability Program work (January 2024). Caliola also received a federal grant sub-award from the National Center For Manufacturing Sciences Inc. for "Advanced Network Technologies for Improved Maintenance and Sustainment Practices" (January 2024).

Award activity has grown substantially — five awards in 2022, eleven in 2023, twenty-eight in 2024, fourteen in 2025, and four in 2026 to date — though combined obligated dollars ($93.6 million) represent less than 0.2% of combined potential value across all awards, reflecting the high proportion of IDV ceiling value. Ten awards carry ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months with combined potential value of $14.8 million, presenting recompete exposure in the SBIR/STTR and definitive contract base. The vendor's NAICS concentration is heavily research-focused: 51 awards under R&D in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences, 14 under Engineering Services, and 9 under Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing. GSA Schedule labor offerings span three professional levels at hourly rates from $176.73 to $389.81 (bachelor's degree, no cleared positions listed).

Caliola powers our Nation's most mission-critical communications.

Caliola is a woman-owned small business (WOSB) defense contractor headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

At Caliola, we build secure and resilient solutions for mission-critical communications.

We are experts in: military satellite communications (SATCOM); waveform design; modernized High Frequency (HF) communications; alternate positioning, navigation, and timing (A-PNT); automated communications and mission planning;

and secure networking.