General Atomics

General Atomics Corp, a large for-profit defense and technology manufacturer headquartered in San Diego, California, operates as a prime contractor on 94% of its federal awards across 75 customer agencies, competing in full-and-open procurement with no SBA certifications or set-aside eligibility. The company delivers a concrete, defense-focused portfolio: inertial confinement fusion target fabrication and research, electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS) and advanced arresting gear (AAG) for naval carriers, specialized aerospace and defense components (electrical assemblies, mechanical parts, circuit card assemblies), space domain awareness systems, advanced materials research, directed energy systems, and nuclear energy technologies.

The Department of the Air Force dominates General Atomics' customer base by both award count and dollar value—225 awards carrying $46.05 billion in combined potential value represent 46% of the vendor's award count and anchor its concentration. The Department of the Navy Naval Air Systems Command follows at 85 awards valued at $5.44 billion, driven by sustained EMALS and AAG work on Ford-class carriers. The Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration contributes 30 awards valued at $2.2 billion, centered on a $547.2 million October 2024 definitive contract for inertial confinement fusion target fabrication and a $979.5 million September 2026 definitive contract for lithium processing and purification services. Naval Sea Systems Command and the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory round out the top five customer agencies. Together, these five agencies account for 85% of General Atomics' combined potential value across $65.18 billion in total awards.

General Atomics maintains substantial parent vehicle positions anchoring sustained customer engagement. A $149.9 million single-award Ford-Class Sustainment Indefinite Delivery Contract with Naval Air Systems Command (through December 31, 2030) supports EMALS and AAG development, sustainment, and depot stand-up for naval carriers. A $237.6 million multiple-award Space Test Experiments Platform (STEP) 2.0 IDIQ with the Air Force Research Laboratory (through April 29, 2035) enables rapid procurement of spacecraft, payload integration, and on-orbit support. A $1.843 billion multiple-award Space and Missile Systems Center IDIQ (through April 8, 2036) addresses space domain awareness mission systems. The Missile Defense Agency's Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award IDIQ, a $151 billion vehicle with completion through December 28, 2035, positions General Atomics to compete for multi-domain defense system work. General Atomics also holds a basic ordering agreement with Naval Air Systems Command (through June 23, 2031) for EMALS and AAG support and a single-award Naval Supply Systems Command repair and sustainment BOA (through September 3, 2029) supporting naval systems component supply.

Activity trajectory shows growth from 59 awards in 2022 to 114 in 2024, then contraction to 100 in 2025 and 69 in 2026, reflecting the timing of large definitive contracts rather than a declining trend. Ninety-four awards with completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $321.1 million, representing moderate recompete exposure across the portfolio. On federal service contracts captured in the Service Contract Inventory, General Atomics invoiced $143.1 million across fiscal years 2022, 2024, and 2025 (FY 2023 carried no reportable SCI activity), with roughly 99–124 FTEs delivered annually to the federal government. Median government-paid rates on SCI-reportable contracts ran around $290.60 per hour, with senior labor pricing reaching $2,254.35 per hour; General Atomics self-performed all labor on SCI-reportable prime contracts with zero subcontractor hour engagement recorded.

General Atomics operates predominantly as a prime contractor on its own internal engineering and manufacturing teams. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the vendor performed 100% of contractor hours internally with no subcontractor engagement. However, when subcontracting on behalf of primes, General Atomics partners with specialized suppliers: Neeltran Inc. supplies transformers and electrical equipment on EMALS and AAG development; Triad National Security, LLC and Pantexas Deterrence, LLC engage General Atomics as a subcontractor on Los Alamos National Laboratory and Pantex Plant management and operating contracts; and Raytheon Company and The Boeing Company utilize General Atomics for aerospace support and capacitor supply on missile and aircraft modernization programs. The vendor also supplies capacitor and component work to Raytheon and engineering support to HRL Laboratories on undersea magnetohydrodynamic pump development under DARPA contract. Representative concrete work includes a $62.9 million Naval Air Systems Command delivery order (April 2026, completion October 2028) for nonrecurring engineering, design, and test work on EMALS and AAG systems; a $110.5 million delivery order (January 2025, completion March 2028) for EMALS and AAG long lead time material and development phase work on Ford-class carriers; a $31.8 million delivery order (September 2025, completion July 2029) for design and test activities on the ECP-0104 DEOB increment program; and a $25.5 million delivery order (August 2025, completion May 2029) for SERDS support equipment, tools, logistics, and technical data packages for EMALS depot stand-up.

The federal grant footprint includes six grants from the Department of Energy Office of Science (CFDA 81.049) addressing fusion energy, high-energy-density physics, and advanced materials ($3.861 million for spherical tokamak physics gaps, August 2025–February 2027; $300,000 for photopumped backlighter platform development, September 2024–August 2025; additional cooperative agreements on frigokinetic simulation, superconducting undulators, plasma diagnostics, and silicon carbide foam); one $2.571 million cooperative agreement from the Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency (CFDA 81.135) on high-efficiency RF sources for particle accelerators supporting used nuclear fuel transmutation (August 2026–August 2029); and grants from the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy addressing accelerated fuel testing. General Atomics acts as recipient on these awards and also serves as sub-recipient on university-led grants including Colorado State University work on micro-encapsulation for inertial fusion energy and Westinghouse Electric Company contracts on silicon carbide cladding development.

NAICS concentration reflects the aerospace and defense footprint: Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing (180 awards), Engineering Services (54 awards), and Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (87 combined awards across subcategories) dominate. PSC concentration tracks similarly, with Miscellaneous Aircraft Accessories and Components (76 awards), R&D–Defense Other (75 awards), Support–Professional Engineering/Technical (54 awards), and Aircraft Launching Equipment (43 awards) leading the portfolio.