Cornerstone Research Group Inc.

Cornerstone Research Group Inc., doing business as CRG Defense, Inc., a small business aerospace and defense firm headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, develops advanced energy storage, propulsion, materials, thermal protection, wearable monitoring, and defense systems technologies as a prime contractor (99% of recent awards) through an extensive Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer program footprint across the Department of Defense and civilian federal agencies. The company competes predominantly under total small business set-asides across SBIR and STTR vehicles, with recurring participation in Phase I exploratory research, Phase II development, and Phase III commercialization awards.

Cornerstone's capability portfolio centers on technology maturation across energy systems (advanced lithium-metal and solid-state batteries, electric propulsion, power systems), advanced materials (carbon-carbon composites, thermal protection systems, polymer optics), aerospace systems (aircraft structures, sensor integration, environmental monitoring), and defense applications spanning weapons systems, hypersonic research, thermal management, and soldier protection. Representative work includes a $14.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee Air Force contract for alternative embedded distributed electric propulsion for short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft (ultimate completion April 2025), a $6 million Naval Air Warfare Center Phase II SBIR for research and development on emerging technologies (October 2023), a $2.5 million Air Force contract for next-generation fused-filament fabrication (September 2024), a $1.999 million Army Phase II SBIR for ultra-low-temperature rechargeable lithium-metal battery technology (March 2026), a $1.958 million Missile Defense Agency contract for physics-informed generative AI hypersonic research (February 2026), and a $1.8 million Air Force Research Laboratory Phase II contract for safe ballistic conformal battery pack development (June 2024).

Customer concentration sits heavily with defense research laboratories and development commands. The top five funding agencies account for 52% of recent awards: the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (72 awards, $44.7 million combined potential value), NASA Shared Services Center (59 awards, $20.5 million), Naval Air Warfare Center (36 awards, $20.7 million), the Air Force (33 awards, $94.9 million), and Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command (31 awards, $12.6 million). By potential value, the Air Force leads at $94.9 million across 33 awards, followed by Naval Sea Systems Command at $80.5 million across 15 awards. The divergence signals that Cornerstone anchors most of its dollar volume to Air Force and Navy primes while spreading award count across multiple SBIR Phase I and Phase II vehicles.

Cornerstone holds three major parent vehicles: a $151 billion multiple-award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract with the Missile Defense Agency (awarded December 2025), the $46 billion Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC) with Air Force Materiel Command (awarded March 2023), a $74 million single-award Naval Sea Systems Command Mobility Platform Prototyping IDIQ (awarded July 2021), and a $69.4 million single-award Air Force power systems and aircraft propulsion SBIR Phase III IDIQ (awarded May 2022). One delivery order under the $69.4 million Air Force IDIQ (May 2022) reached $4.5 million for power systems work. Cornerstone also holds a Basic Ordering Agreement with Naval Air Warfare Center for SBIR Phase III work (awarded April 2026) and a $9.8 million Defense Logistics Agency Indefinite Delivery Contract for Joint Additive Manufacturing Acceptability (JAMA) IV pilot parts production (awarded February 2026).

Award activity has declined in recent years—29 awards in 2022, 28 in 2023, 19 in 2024, 18 in 2025, and 6 through April 2026—reflecting a contraction from peak SBIR/STTR award volume. Twenty-one awards with combined potential value of $29.7 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure. Cornerstone operates as a pure prime on its federal footprint (99% prime, 1% sub), with subcontract work appearing only in narrow instances: a September 2024 Bluehalo sub on an Air Force Airman Improved Readiness program, a January 2022 Georgia Tech Applied Research sub on ALQ-161 DAS performance analysis, and an August 2021 Battelle Memorial Institute sub on carbon-carbon material processing. On grant work, Cornerstone is a prime recipient of Department of Energy Office of Science funding for inverse vulcanized sulfur cathode battery research (awarded July 2023, completing September 2026) and Defense Health Agency funding for airborne hazard and burn pit exposure monitoring wearables (awarded September 2022, completing September 2025); it also appears as a sub-recipient under Center for the Advancement of Science in Space on reversible joint research for the International Space Station (awarded September 2023).

Service Contract Inventory data show limited federal services contracting exposure above the $150,000 threshold. SCI-reported invoicing declined from $1.8 million across 2.2 FTEs in FY2022 to $689 thousand across 1.6 FTEs in FY2024, reflecting Cornerstone's reliance on research and development contract vehicles rather than time-and-materials or labor-hour service contracts. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, median government-paid rates ran around $324.29 per hour, with senior labor pricing reaching $935.63 per hour and junior labor at $178.19 per hour. Cornerstone self-performed all reported hours across these contracts with no subcontractor engagement. The company's federal footprint is dominated by fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee SBIR and STTR awards under basic research, applied research, and exploratory development classifications (207 awards in physical, engineering, and life sciences R&D alone), with a narrow presence in production or traditional service contracting.

CRG Defense, founded in 1997, is a premier aerospace and defense firm with over 90 employees, delivering high-performance, cost-effective solutions with speed and agility. Part of the Rushlight Assets family and wholly owned by U.S. citizens, CRG Defense is immune to foreign control or influence through foreign investors.

Our expertise includes aerospace systems, human health and AI, power and energy, advanced materials and manufacturing, missionized systems, and secure production. With all services under one roof-R&D, prototyping, manufacturing, and more-CRG Defense ensures a secure and streamlined supply chain. We provide patented, high-rate composite manufacturing for aircraft primary structures, in-house domestic production of battery cells and packs for the Department of Defense, and innovative composite solutions.

Located 16 miles southwest of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, CRG Defense operates from secure facilities, delivering American ingenuity at its finest.