CFD Research Corporation

CFD Research Corporation, a for-profit small business headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, provides computational fluid dynamics modeling, advanced materials research, artificial intelligence and machine learning, biomedical engineering, and systems engineering services to federal defense and civilian agencies as a prime contractor (89% of recent awards) and subcontractor on select defense programs. The company operates across 1,202 prime and sub awards spanning 80 federal customer agencies, with combined potential value of $50.55 billion and recent annual activity declining from 89 awards in 2024 to 18 in 2026 (year-to-date through September).

Customer concentration sits heavily with the Department of the Air Force, which anchors approximately $1.9 billion in combined potential value across 62 awards—the single largest customer by dollars, though the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory leads by award count with 142 contracts. The Department of the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command ranks second by value at $124.3 million across 65 awards. Together, these three customers and NASA's Shared Services Center and Army Medical Command account for roughly 40% of total award count but only 4% of the combined potential value, signaling deep customer concentration in a small number of large delivery-order vehicles rather than broad small-contract distribution. The recompete cliff is significant: 38 awards with combined potential value of $112 million face completion within the next twenty-four months.

CFD Research holds seats on multiple government-wide IDIQs anchoring the prime footprint. The SHIELD Indefinite Delivery Contract with the Missile Defense Agency carries a nominally sized $151 billion ceiling (a placeholder marker under SHIELD's multi-domain defense scope) with a December 28, 2035 completion date; one $500 delivery order was issued December 29, 2025. The OASIS+ Small Business IDIQ (General Services Administration), awarded December 19, 2024, carries a $999,999,999,999 placeholder ceiling through December 18, 2029 and reflects CFD Research's qualified position on the governmentwide professional services vehicle reserved for small businesses. The TETRAS II test and evaluation vehicle (Air Force Materiel Command, June 30, 2023 award, $999.9 million ceiling through June 29, 2028) has generated one $1,000 delivery order to date. A $900 million Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Architecture and Integration Directorate IDIQ (December 9, 2022, through November 14, 2027) supports multi-domain systems capabilities development. A $4.1 million DARPA Other Transaction IDV for the SMS Program (May 28, 2025) sits outside the FAR for prototype development. Recent named work includes an $11.8 million Autonomous Decision Making in Technology contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (June 2024, cost-plus-fixed-fee through September 2028) for modeling and simulation in sensing autonomy; a $24.5 million in-silico framework contract with AFRL (May 2023, cost-plus-fixed-fee through May 2027) for toxicity evaluation of hazardous materials in flight environments; and a $6.6 million DARPA Microsystem Induced Catalysis contract (August 2025, cost-plus-fixed-fee through November 2028) for multiscale modeling and fabrication of microsystem-based catalytic control.

Across the SBIR/STTR portfolio, CFD Research competes predominantly under total small business set-asides. Recent Phase II awards include a $1.3 million Defense Health Agency contract for compact remote vital-sign monitoring with integrated photonics (August 2024, firm fixed price through December 2026), a $1.25 million Air Force Research Laboratory contract for robust liquid and supercritical flow rate measurement (August 2024, firm fixed price through November 2026), and a $1.5 million Army Research Development and Engineering Command contract for advanced 3D corneal model development for keratoconus research (February 2024, firm fixed price through July 2025). The vendor also holds federal grant awards from NIH, with recent recipients including the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences ($349.8 thousand for high-throughput organoid platform for electrophysiology, August 2026 through August 2027, and $180 thousand for fallopian tube-on-chip model for reproductive health, September 2026 through September 2027) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (cooperative agreement for uterus-on-chip platform for reproductive aging research, August 2025 through July 2028). The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded two grants for HARMONY AI natural language processing for gene engineering and biomanufacturing (both September 2023, firm fixed price through August 2025).

CFD Research self-performs substantially all work on prime contracts with minimal subcontractor engagement. Across Service Contract Inventory records, the vendor self-performed 100% of contractor hours on prime contracts in FY2022–FY2025, with no named subcontractors recorded on the subset of SCI-reportable contracts above the $150,000 threshold. SCI-reported invoicing totaled $10.4 million across FY2022–FY2025, with FY2025 activity at $3.2 million across 7.6 FTEs and FY2024 at $3.1 million across 6.7 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI prime contracts run a median of $209/hr, with the 10th percentile at $95/hr and the 90th percentile at $486/hr, reflecting a portfolio spanning entry-level technicians through senior subject-matter experts. On GSA Multiple Award Schedule labor, CFD Research carries 33 active categories priced from $43/hr for administrative support through $332/hr for master's-level subject-matter experts with 25+ years of experience, all without security-clearance requirements. In its subcontractor role, CFD Research delivers modeling and simulation, CAD development, aeromechanics and structural dynamics analysis, and C-UAS technology assessment to primes including Torch Technologies, L3 Technologies, Analytical Mechanics Associates, Booz Allen Hamilton, Radiance Technologies, and Applied Research Solutions on Army Aviation and Missile Center, Navy, and NASA work.

Activity trajectory shows year-over-year decline from a 2024 peak of 89 awards to 62 in 2025 and 18 recorded through September 2026, with 38 awards carrying ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months presenting recompete exposure of $112 million. The vendor's award distribution spans research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences (387 awards under primary NAICS 541712) and applied research across space, defense, and civilian R&D domains (PSC codes dominated by R&D categories accounting for 127 space R&D, 104 defense applied research, and 59 defense basic research awards respectively). Place of performance centers on Huntsville, Alabama, with task orders and sub-work also executed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Beavercreek, Ohio; Silver Spring, Maryland; Arlington, Virginia; and Orlando, Florida.

ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICES TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE INDUSTRY; SPECIALIZING IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS, TECHNIQUES AND COMPUTER CODES FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING PROBLEMS.