Covert Defenses LLC

Covert Defenses LLC, operating through its Hany Abdel-Khalik Division, is a West Lafayette, Indiana-based small business that delivers reduced-order modeling, predictive modeling, and cybersecurity solutions for critical infrastructure protection and unattended high-value systems to federal agencies as a prime contractor exclusively — all seven recent awards are prime positions with no subcontract activity.

Covert Defenses competes as a small business across multiple set-aside categories. Four of its recent awards carry total small business designations (three SBIR contracts with Air Force Research Laboratory and Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, and two DOE Office of Science grants); one SBIR Phase II contract with DHS S&T carries cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing; and one DHS S&T award carries no set-aside designation. The company has worked with four distinct federal agencies across research, development, and commercialization programs focused on critical infrastructure resilience, cybersecurity, and operational intelligence.

The vendor's customer base is concentrated in civilian R&D agencies. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate anchors the footprint with three awards totaling $1.2 million in combined potential value — including a $999,691.69 SBIR Phase II contract for reduced-order modeling of critical infrastructure protect surfaces with an ultimate completion date of March 25, 2026, a $150,000 definitive contract for reduced-order modeling closed out in October 2023, and a $50,000 contract supporting SBIR commercialization activities through the NSF I-Corps program. Department of Energy Office of Science has placed two awards: a $206,460 project grant dated July 8, 2025 (completion July 7, 2026) for plant modernization through Enhanced Digital Intelligence and Monitoring systems for core monitoring and operational intelligence, and a second grant for "Covert Cognizance: A Novel Predictive Modeling Paradigm for Securing Unattended High-Valued Systems" with completion in August 2025. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded a $72,988 SBIR Phase I purchase order on June 21, 2024 for covert cognizance in small unmanned aircraft systems for zero-downtime operation in cyber-contested environments. One award to an unnamed Department of Defense National Security Agency entity also appears in the source portfolio.

Activity is sparse and research-stage. Six awards span 2019 through 2025 with clustering in 2024 (three awards). Combined potential value stands at $1.3 million, though obligated dollars ($3.1 million across all awards) exceed that ceiling — a signal of contract modifications and extensions. The single SCI-reportable service contract in the dataset shows $291 thousand invoiced in FY2024 across 0.7 FTEs, with government-paid rates at median $201.46 per hour. The vendor reports minimal subcontractor engagement (1% of hours across SCI-reportable prime contracts, one named sub).

Covert Defenses operates in applied and basic research services, with capability focus grounded in SBIR development and critical infrastructure modeling rather than large-scale implementation work.