Nortekusa, Inc.

Nortekusa, Inc., a Boston-based, foreign-owned, self-certified small disadvantaged business, manufactures and distributes specialized acoustic Doppler current profilers, echosounders, and related oceanographic instrumentation to federal agencies primarily as a prime contractor (97% of recent awards). The company operates across NAICS codes centered on navigation and guidance system manufacturing (334511) and measuring instrument manufacturing (334513), delivering equipment to civilian ocean-observing agencies through a portfolio of purchase orders, delivery orders, and a $1.1 million single-award indefinite delivery contract with NOAA.

Customer concentration is extreme and deliberate: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) accounts for 78 of 172 total awards and $12.6 million of the $15.9 million combined potential value across all recent work, representing 79% of dollar volume. The U.S. Geological Survey's Office of Acquisitions and Grants ranks second with 58 awards and $2 million in combined potential value (13% of dollars). The Department of the Navy, through the Secretary of the Navy Office of Naval Research, the Naval Education and Training Command, and the Bureau of Naval Personnel, accounts for 21 awards and roughly $940 thousand combined. The Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior, and smaller Navy offices round out the remaining nine percent. This concentration reflects Nortekusa's core role as an exclusive or sole-source supplier of Nortek-branded equipment — primarily Aquadopp acoustic current meters, Signature series profilers, and AWAC profilers — for NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), which operates Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) and moored ocean-observation buoy networks across U.S. coastal waters and international research arrays including the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array, Research Moored Array (RAMA), and Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO).

The single-award IDC with NOAA, awarded August 18, 2021, with a ceiling of $1.1 million and ultimate completion September 15, 2026, anchors the customer relationship. Delivery orders against this IDC have ranged from $14.9 thousand to $386 thousand and cover Aquadopp acoustic current meters and lithium battery packs. Representative prime work outside the IDC includes a $936.8 thousand definitive contract with NOAA in June 2023 for TAO Recap inductive modem point source current meters under total small business set-aside, a $3.36 million definitive contract with NOAA in September 2024 for Aquadopp current meters and profilers and a Thunderstorm sensor, a $246.3 thousand sole-source purchase order with NOAA in February 2025 for Nortek spare parts, and a $227.2 thousand purchase order with NOAA in May 2026 for Nortek sensors supporting CO-OPS waterway current measurement stations. With USGS, representative work includes a $164.8 thousand purchase order for an acoustic Doppler profiler in May 2022, multiple purchases of five-beam current profiling systems (Signature 500 and Signature 1000) ranging from $29.3 thousand to $72 thousand under total small business set-asides, and a $59 thousand purchase order in July 2024 for a bottom-moored acoustic Doppler profiler in Lake Erie. The Navy's Office of Naval Research awarded a $149.8 thousand purchase order in September 2022 for Signature 1000 ADCPs and related equipment, and the Naval Supply Systems Command awarded a $32.2 thousand purchase order in July 2024 for two Doppler Velocity Logger units to the Naval Academy.

Activity has moderated year over year after peaks in 2022 and 2023. The source shows 16 awards each in 2022 and 2023, declining to 14 in 2024 and 9 in 2025, with only 3 awards recorded in 2026 as of the snapshot date (May 15, 2026). Combined obligated value across all awards stands at $15.6 million (98% of combined potential value), indicating minimal unexercised ceiling room. No significant recompete cliff is evident in the source data; rather, the firm's pipeline reflects ongoing small orders for replacement parts, repairs, and equipment refreshes on NOAA's mooring networks and USGS water-science programs.

Nortekusa's subcontractor footprint is minimal (3% of awards by count, 5 subs named). Recent sub work includes a January 2026 award from Phoenix International Holdings under a South China Sea aircraft-recovery project for a DVL 500, 6000-meter replacement unit for an ROV system; an October 2025 sub with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for submarine environmental-awareness services; and three 2023–2024 subs with Atlantic Diving Supply for Nortek Signature profilers and data loggers. The source does not detail scope or dollar values for sub awards.

Across set-aside posture, Nortekusa competes under both total small business set-asides (roughly 40% of awards by count) and unrestricted full-and-open competitions. The unrestricted work typically carries sole-source justifications tied to the unique technical fit of Nortek equipment with NOAA's existing CO-OPS infrastructure, compatibility requirements with Sea-Bird inductive modem protocols, and the unavailability of domestic equivalent parts under FAR 25.104(a) for foreign-manufactured equipment. USGS work splits between set-aside and unrestricted designations. The source identifies no GWAC, BPA, or other parent vehicle holdings; work flows through direct purchase orders and delivery orders against the NOAA IDC.

Nortekusa operates as the distributor and value-added integrator of Nortek AS (Norway) oceanographic sensors. The company holds no manufacturing capability in the source's framing; instead, it serves as the exclusive or primary U.S. reseller and technical integrator. Delivery typically occurs within 30 to 90 days from Boston, Massachusetts, supporting U.S. federal ocean-observing missions where Nortek equipment has become the de facto standard for high-frequency acoustic current profiling and wave measurement in coastal and offshore environments.