Makai Ocean Engineering Inc.

Makai Ocean Engineering Inc., doing business as Makai Research Pier, a Hawaii-based small business, delivers advanced ocean engineering, subsea infrastructure systems, and marine technology development services to the Department of the Navy as a prime contractor (94% of recent awards) and as a subcontractor on research partnerships with university and private sector primes. The company operates as a for-profit manufacturer and engineering services provider, competing predominantly in the small business set-aside space across SBIR and STTR programs while also winning full-and-open contracts with major IDIQs.

Makai's customer concentration is heavily concentrated in the Department of the Navy. The top five funding entities account for 70% of recent awards by count and 98% of combined potential value, dominated by Naval Facilities Engineering Command (37 awards, $503.9 million combined potential value), Naval Sea Systems Command (31 awards, $32.4 million), and the Office of Naval Research (21 awards, $24.2 million). Naval Supply Systems Command Engineering Logistics Office, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency round out the active set. The customer rankings diverge sharply on dollar concentration — NAVFAC's $503.9 million potential value dwarfs all other customers, anchored by Makai's $180 million Ocean Multiple Award Contract (OMAC-4) awarded December 5, 2024, with a 5-year base and 6-month option running through December 2029, and a $45 million Advanced Ocean Technology Program IDC awarded September 24, 2024, extending through March 23, 2030.

Recent representative prime work includes an $8.4 million Naval Sea Systems Command delivery order for Phase I installation of the Pacific Deep Electromagnetic Research Measurement Array (PACDERMA) system at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Kauai, awarded January 16, 2026; a $3.56 million Office of Naval Research cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for ultra-compact heat exchanger (TFHX) development with commercial transition objectives through December 2026; an $11.4 million Navy NAVSUP Engineering Logistics Office cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order for horizontal directional drilling installation of two utility conduits at U.S. Coast Guard property, Kodiak Island, Alaska, running through June 2026; a $1.9 million Army SBIR Phase II contract for resilient and rapidly restorable cabled communications (R3C2) through August 2026; and a $328,432 DARPA Commercial Solutions Opening definitive contract supporting Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative commercialization activities, completed January 7, 2027. Makai also holds a $1.25 million DARPA TRENTON Program Other Transaction IDV awarded May 5, 2025, with no set-aside restriction.

Makai's primary vehicle footprint sits on two Navy NAVFAC IDIQs totaling $225 million in ceiling value, both set-aside for total small business under NAICS 541330. The Ocean Engineering Services 2018-2023 IDIQ (parent vehicle to 18 prior task orders, $41.9 million combined value) has expired in date but remains active for task order administration; Makai competes for orders across cable fabrication, subsea installation, infrastructure support, and logistics services. The newer OMAC-4 and Advanced Ocean Technology Program vehicles enable competition for cable systems, offshore structures, construction equipment, geotechnical surveys, load handling, and environmental permitting. Beyond NAVFAC, Makai holds a SeaPort Next Generation multiple-award IDIQ with Naval Sea Systems Command (referenced in multiple award summaries as enabling competition for engineering and technical services across Navy commands).

Activity has grown year over year through 2024 — from ten awards in 2022 to twenty-one in 2024 — though 2025 and 2026 show lighter recent action (11 and 2 awards respectively in the source snapshot). Thirteen awards worth $24.9 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, exposing Makai to recompete risk on near-term expiring delivery orders and Phase-funded SBIR efforts. Makai's award portfolio spans research, development, and production work, with category concentration across R&D in physical and engineering sciences (41 awards), engineering services (32 awards), and custom computer programming (15 awards), reflecting its dual posture as a hardware-and-software provider for naval systems.

In its subcontractor role, Makai supplies vessel support and consulting services to Pacmar Technologies LLC on the Manta Ray Phase 2 autonomous undersea vehicle development program (multiple subs July 2024 through September 2025) and provides technical support to the University of Hawaii on the Reefense Program (Rapid Resilient Reefs for Coastal Defense) for DoD coastal infrastructure protection (multiple subs May 2024 through October 2025). Makai also acts as a sub-recipient under University of Hawaii grants for the Asia Pacific Research Initiative for Sustainable Energy Systems program (APRISES 2020 and 2021).

Makai's federal grant footprint includes three cooperative agreements and project grants as prime recipient. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy awarded a cooperative agreement for cost-effective primary heat exchanger development for Gen3 concentrating solar power systems, extending through December 2027, leveraging Makai's thin-foil heat exchanger (TFHX) technology for particle-to-supercritical CO2 systems. The Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) funded a cooperative agreement for remotely installed anchorages for floating offshore wind and marine hydrokinetic systems (micropile technology), running through November 2026, in partnership with North Carolina State University. The Department of Energy Office of Science awarded a project grant for an automated grid interconnection planning and cost estimation tool through February 2026.

Makai's concrete capability portfolio centers on subsea cabling and infrastructure, underwater communications systems, fiber-optic tether and cable deployment analysis, seabed modeling and geotechnical characterization, advanced heat exchanger design and development, autonomous underwater vehicle support, offshore renewable energy anchoring and installation systems, and proprietary MakaiPlan software for marine and offshore engineering planning. The company manufactures dual-conductor subsea cable (submarine-distributed temperature sensing shipsets with buoyant cable antenna fiber optic systems) and advanced interface assemblies for Navy infrastructure. The SBIR and STTR program participation reflects Makai's orientation toward commercializing emerging technologies in maritime and defense applications.

Engineering & design ocean pipelines, ocean energy systems, 3D/4D visualization software, submarine cable management software