Cardinal Scientific, Inc.

Cardinal Scientific, Inc., a Waldorf, Maryland–based small business manufacturer, operates almost exclusively as a prime contractor (97% of awards) delivering precision machining, fabrication, welding, and custom instrumentation for defense and aerospace applications under total small business set-asides. The company is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation with two active fabrication facilities in St. Charles and St. Inigoes, Maryland, and a primary NAICS footprint in machine shops and miscellaneous fabricated metal product manufacturing.

Cardinal Scientific's customer concentration is heavily skewed to the Department of the Navy. The top five funding agencies account for 76% of awards by count, led by Naval Sea Systems Command (117 awards, $18.8 million combined potential value) and Naval Air Systems Command's Naval Air Warfare Center (25 awards, $50.5 million). However, the two rankings diverge materially: while NAVSEA dominates award frequency, NAVAIR anchors the majority of dollar value, driven by a single-award indefinite-delivery contract for MQ-4C Triton compartment cooling equipment sets valued at $2.9 million through May 2028. Department of the Army Training and Doctrine Command contributes $26.4 million across just three awards — a second-highest-dollar customer that appears infrequently by count. NASA Glenn Research Center (17 awards, $5.5 million) and Naval Supply Systems Command (17 awards, $634 thousand) round out the active set. Combined, these five agencies represent 97% of potential value.

Cardinal Scientific places work through five primary blanket purchase agreements and indefinite-delivery vehicles. The Naval Air Warfare Center BPA (N0017416A0041) carries 42 task orders and $1 million in combined potential value; the Naval Air Warfare Center BPA (N0017816A0033) carries 16 task orders and $680 thousand; NASA Glenn Research Center's multi-award BPA (80LARC21AA007) carries 11 task orders and $232 thousand; NASA Langley Research Center's multi-award BPA (NNC17BA10B) carries 10 task orders and $294 thousand; and NAVSEA's indefinite-delivery contract (N0017413D0008) carries 9 task orders and $509 thousand. Recent representative prime work includes a $748,717 delivery order from Naval Air Systems Command for MQ-4C compartment cooling equipment sets (March 2026, firm fixed-price, total small business set-aside); a $209,614 purchase order from Naval Air Warfare Center for an MQ-4C Triton tail stand assembly option exercise (September 2024, total small business set-aside); a $283,244 delivery order from NAVSEA for R&D production (December 2023, no set-aside); and a $82,740 BPA call from NASA Glenn Research Center for a CE-13 High Temperature Project Inconel Igniter Spool (August 2023, total small business set-aside).

Activity has remained roughly flat over the past five years — ranging from 9 to 17 awards annually, with 2024 marking the peak at 17 awards — against a combined potential value of $106.5 million and only $13.9 million obligated (13% realization rate). Only four awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, with combined potential value of $1.3 million, indicating minimal recompete cliff exposure. In its subcontractor role, Cardinal Scientific has delivered MK 41 Vertical Launching System component engineering and inspection services to General Dynamics Information Technology across five sub-awards (October 2025–October 2026), and explosive ordnance disposal energetic UAS parts to Applied Research Associates (March 2026). Cardinal Scientific does not hold federal contract IDV vehicles as a prime; all work flows through customer-held BPAs and indefinite-delivery contracts. The vendor's capability portfolio centers on specialized metalwork assemblies, precision-engineered components, reverse engineering and first-article testing, and compartment cooling equipment for naval platforms and unmanned systems, with secondary work spanning aerospace component fabrication and NASA research-support manufacturing.

ELECTRO-MECHANICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH, DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, PROTOTYPE & MODEL FABRICATION; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SERVICES; TEST FIXTURES; TEST DEVELOPMENT & EVALUATION; COMPUTER MODELING; TDP. MACHINE SHOP SERVICES, ENGINEERING & PROGRAM SUPPORT SE