Matrix Research Inc.

Matrix Research Inc., doing business as Matrix Research & Engineering, is a small business Subchapter S corporation headquartered in Beavercreek, Ohio that develops advanced radar systems, synthetic aperture radar processing, electronic intelligence sensors, and machine learning subsystems for defense agencies as a prime contractor (71% of recent awards) and subcontractor on defense research and development programs. The vendor competes predominantly under full-and-open procurement, with recent prime work split between Total Small Business set-asides on SBIR Phase II and Phase III vehicles and unrestricted competitive awards on larger research contracts and IDIQs.

Matrix Research's customer concentration is acute: the Air Force Research Laboratory accounts for 123 of 135 awards (99% of awards) and $480.8 million of the $507.1 million combined potential value, with secondary exposure through the Air Force (four awards, $16.8 million), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (two awards, $5.3 million), the Missile Defense Agency (three awards, $150 thousand), and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (one award, $2.8 million). The concentration reflects Matrix Research's strategic positioning as an AFRL research partner rather than a broad-base defense contractor.

Matrix Research holds five major indefinite delivery contracts with AFRL and the Air Force. The largest is a $151 billion multiple-award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) IDIQ with the Missile Defense Agency (awarded December 29, 2025, through December 28, 2035), followed by a $94.975 million single-award Architecture Refinement, Demonstration and Integration Systems (ARDIS) call-07 applied RF strategy IDIQ with AFRL (August 8, 2025, through August 8, 2031); a $49.5 million single-award SBIR Phase III IDIQ with AFRL for electronics, apertures, and machine learning subsystems (February 17, 2023, through February 22, 2028); a $10 million single-award Advanced Multifunction Cooperative Seeker Technology IDIQ with AFRL (September 29, 2022, through September 30, 2027); and a $9.999 million single-award Distributed Coherent Synthetic Aperture Radar at Ku-Band (DCSAR-KU) IDIQ with the Air Force (July 23, 2024, through July 22, 2027). Task orders under these vehicles cluster around distributed coherent radar development, digital beamforming testbeds, wideband electronic intelligence receivers, radio frequency sensor technology, and multi-spectral sensing. The SBIR Phase III vehicle alone has generated four delivery orders totaling approximately $13.9 million across wideband digital receivers ($6.15 million), RF sensor hardware ($2.58 million), digital beamforming ($2.19 million), and the PHANTOM RAVEN project ($2.8 million), all extending through mid-2027.

Representative prime awards include a $14.97 million cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract with AFRL for Combat Identification Automatic Target Recognition Technology (CATCH) call 02 (January 13, 2026, through April 13, 2031); a $12.327 million definitive contract with AFRL for multi-spectral sensing technologies research and development (November 22, 2022, through February 22, 2027), with subcontractors including Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory, 3611 Advanced Research Company LLC, Signature Research Inc., The Ohio State University, and Georgia TECH Applied Research Corp.; a $9.13 million definitive contract for Distributed Airborne Coherence (DAC) research with AFRL (August 18, 2022, through April 1, 2027), with BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Inc. performing subcontract support; a $5.99 million SBIR Phase II definitive contract with AFRL for Distributed Coherent Radar development (August 27, 2024, through August 31, 2028); and a $5.33 million cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract with DARPA for Beyond Linear Processing (BLiP) signal processing innovation (July 11, 2023, through March 10, 2025). Smaller awards include a $4.897 million delivery order with the Air Force for distributed coherent radar technology for unmanned aerial vehicle swarms (July 23, 2024, through August 23, 2027), a $2.79 million Total Small Business delivery order from the Office of the Secretary of Defense under PHANTOM RAVEN (September 30, 2025, through June 30, 2027), and a $179,982 Total Small Business purchase order with AFRL for low-cost electronic warfare payloads (April 1, 2026, through October 1, 2026).

In its subcontractor role, Matrix Research delivers specialized radar and sensing R&D to Applied Research Solutions, Inc. (multiple SLAKE—Sensing, Learning, Autonomy and Knowledge Engineering—task orders from February 2022), Science Applications International Corporation on radio frequency seeker R&D (July 1, 2023), Leidos Inc. on multi-domain radar in contested environments (MUDRACE) goods and services (June 3, 2024), and Radiance Technologies Inc. on data science analysis and reporting (DATASTAR) supporting geospatial intelligence (February 17, 2026). The vendor's subcontract footprint, 29% of recent awards, surfaces primarily through AFRL-funded systems engineering and advanced research primes rather than traditional defense production.

Activity has declined modestly from twelve awards in 2022 to three in 2026 (year-to-date), reflecting longer award intervals for large IDIQ and definitive contracts rather than pipeline contraction. Eleven awards carrying combined potential value of $50.8 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure concentrated in the AFRL SBIR Phase III vehicle ($2.19 million digital beamforming testbed through January 9, 2028) and several smaller delivery orders under existing IDIQs. Matrix Research's research portfolio, grounded in NAICS 541712 (Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences) and PSC codes for defense systems electronics, signal processing, and experimental development, positions the vendor as a specialized AFRL sensor and radar research partner rather than a full-spectrum defense prime.

Our passion is developing and delivering advanced technologies to solve challenging problems and help our customers achieve their missions. We are committed to technical excellence, strong customer relationships, and our employees.

We develop solutions ranging in maturity from early groundbreaking research to fielded systems while leveraging our inhouse suite of expertise in measurement systems, custom hardware, scientific software, advanced signal processing, and security services.