Innovative Defense Technologies, LLC

Innovative Defense Technologies, LLC, doing business as Innovative Defense, is a small-business prime contractor headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, that delivers advanced defense research and development, systems engineering, automated testing infrastructure, and digital engineering solutions to the Department of Defense and Naval commands. The company competes primarily under total small business set-asides on SBIR and SBIR Phase III contracts, though it also holds positions on full-and-open multiple-award IDIQs and basic ordering agreements where it performs without set-aside restriction.

Innovative Defense operates as a prime contractor on 86% of its recent awards and pursues work across naval undersea warfare, missile defense, infrared sensor systems (SBIRS High), naval digital engineering ecosystems, distributed maritime operations software development, and automated test and retest tooling. Representative prime work includes a $99.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee development contract from the Office of Naval Research (awarded April 1, 2022) for rapid and affordable software development supporting distributed maritime operations, with place of performance in Arlington; a $62.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract from ONR (March 23, 2023) for development of a Naval Digital Engineering Ecosystem utilizing automated test and re-test enterprise platform technologies; an $89.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract from Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (September 27, 2023) for labor support on the OM ATRT SBIR III program; and a $49.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee engineering design development contract from Naval Sea Systems Command (January 23, 2025) with place of performance in Fall River, Massachusetts. The company also carries a portfolio of SBIR and Phase III SBIR awards across Naval Sea Systems Command, the Missile Defense Agency, the Office of Naval Research, and the Department of the Army, with individual awards ranging from under $200 thousand to $2.9 million.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted to Naval commands. The top five funding agencies account for 90% of awards by count and 95% of combined potential value. Naval Sea Systems Command dominates both dimensions—195 awards carrying $795.9 million combined potential value—followed by Air Force Materiel Command ($980 million on two awards, anchored by the ten-year Automatic Test Systems Acquisition-I (ATSA-I) contract), the Office of Naval Research ($223.1 million across seven awards), Naval Information Warfare Systems Command ($121.7 million on nine awards), and the Missile Defense Agency ($103.8 million across 27 awards). The concentration is pronounced: Naval commands (Sea Systems, Air Systems, Information Warfare) account for roughly 82% of awards and over $983 million of the $2.35 billion combined potential value.

Innovative Defense holds positions on five major parent vehicles. The Naval Sea Systems Command Basic Ordering Agreement N0002411G4226 carries 58 task orders worth $64.5 million combined potential; BOA N0002417G4115 carries 45 task orders for $56.4 million. The company also sits on a $245.9 million multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with Naval Sea Systems Command for undersea weapons and defensive systems (ultimate completion January 23, 2029); a $66.2 million single-award SBIR Phase III IDC with the Missile Defense Agency (through May 31, 2029) for automated test and retest and middleware development; a $40 million single-award total small business IDC with the Office of the Secretary of Defense for long-range fires development (November 16, 2030); the $151 billion Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award IDIQ with the Missile Defense Agency (through December 28, 2035, no set-aside); and a $980 million ten-year ATSA-I contract with Air Force Materiel Command (through September 18, 2035, no set-aside). Seven awards carrying $475.3 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure across SBIR Phase III efforts and undersea systems engineering work.

As a subcontractor, Innovative Defense operates across multiple prime relationships. The source records 44 sub-awards (14% of total awards). Named primes include Lockheed Martin Corporation (which has awarded Innovative Defense numerous sub-awards on cyber capabilities, engineering services, and integrated development work; the sub-awards span CY2022–CY2024 modifications focused on subsequent capabilities and in-service development), Intrepid LLC (multiple sub-awards in FY2024–FY2025 for systems engineering and technical assistance to the Integrated Fires Mission Command project office), and HII Mission Technologies Corp (sub-awards for research and analysis on scientific and technical information deliverables and F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office ground test and simulation capability verification). SCI data shows minimal service-contract reporting activity (one record as a named subcontractor in FY2024, representing 0.7 FTEs), indicating that the bulk of Innovative Defense's federal work is either classified, performed under R&D vehicles outside SCI thresholds, or excludes the service-contract components SCI tracks.

Innovative Defense's capability footprint spans automated test and re-test infrastructure, middleware services for system integration, digital engineering ecosystems and model-based systems engineering, infrared sensor development and integration for space-based systems, research and development services on undersea weapons and defensive systems, software development for distributed maritime and naval operations, cybersecurity and cyber-resilience research, data analysis and visualization, and SBIR Phase commercialization support. The company has established itself as a core Navy R&D supplier, particularly for Naval Sea Systems Command and the Office of Naval Research, with secondary depth across the Missile Defense Agency and Air Force platforms. Subcontractor partnerships with Lockheed Martin, Intrepid, and HII position Innovative Defense as a feeder supplier for large defense integrators while maintaining a substantial prime footprint anchored to small-business SBIR set-asides and full-and-open R&D vehicles on major naval platforms.