Machina Cognita Technologies, Inc.

Machina Cognita Technologies, Inc., a service-disabled veteran-owned small business headquartered in Carlsbad, California, specializes in artificial intelligence and machine learning research and development for defense and intelligence applications as a prime contractor (85% of recent awards) under total small business set-asides. The firm is also certified as a small disadvantaged business and veteran-owned business, structured as a Subchapter S corporation, and competes exclusively under small-business set-asides.

Machina Cognita's capability portfolio centers on deep learning algorithms, explainable artificial intelligence, and signals intelligence and electronic intelligence data analysis applied to military decision support and systems automation. Representative work includes a $1.75 million cost-plus-fixed-fee research and development contract awarded by Naval Information Warfare Systems Command on November 5, 2025, with an ultimate completion date of May 10, 2029; a $1.25 million cost-plus-fixed-fee SBIR Phase II contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory for the Spatial-Temporal Agent-Based Motion Prediction and Evasion Decision Engine (STAMPEDE) platform, emphasizing deep learning and reinforcement learning for personnel recovery decision support; and a $3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee research and development contract from the Office of Naval Research awarded in December 2023, extended to March 12, 2027. Machina Cognita also holds a recent $139,953 definitive contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory for flight optimization research combining radio-frequency and electro-optical/infrared exploitation with motion-blur mitigation for denied environments.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward naval research and warfare-center organizations. The top five Navy and Air Force customers account for 90% of awards and 99% of combined potential value. The Office of Naval Research leads with eight awards worth $6 million combined; Naval Information Warfare Systems Command follows with two awards worth $3.5 million; the Air Force Research Laboratory holds five awards worth $2.9 million; Naval Sea Systems Command has two awards worth $480 thousand; and Naval Air Warfare Center holds one award worth $240 thousand. This concentration reflects Machina Cognita's embedded position in the SBIR ecosystem, where the majority of its awards (Phase I and Phase II contracts ranging from $150 thousand to $3 million) flow from Navy and Air Force R&D organizations.

Work is performed primarily at locations in Carlsbad, La Costa, and San Marcos, California. Four awards with ultimate completion dates inside the next twenty-four months carry a combined potential value of $3.6 million and face recompete exposure. In its limited subcontractor role, Machina Cognita subcontracts to Science Applications International Corporation on a system software lifecycle engineering support sub-award (August 2026). The vendor's recent award trajectory shows growth from two awards in 2022 to five in 2025, with a combined prime portfolio of $13.3 million since 2020. All work falls under NAICS 541711 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences) and PSC 72XX (National Defense R&D Services), positioning Machina Cognita as a specialized SBIR-focused prime in AI-driven defense applications with minimal civilian agency or commercial-space exposure.