Ocean Products Research, Inc.

Ocean Products Research, Inc., doing business as Ocean Products Research, manufactures and supplies specialized maritime hardware—mooring lines, synthetic ropes, fiber rope assemblies, chain assemblies, and related rigging equipment—to the Department of Defense, Coast Guard, and civilian federal maritime agencies as a small business prime contractor (100% of recent awards). The company operates as a Subchapter S corporation based in Diggs, Virginia, and competes predominantly under small business set-asides; roughly 55% of recent awards carry Total Small Business designations.

Ocean Products Research's customer concentration is heavily defense-maritime. The top five funding agencies account for 59% of recent awards by count and 78% by combined potential value. Military Sealift Command dominates both rankings with 58 awards valued at $18.4 million combined potential value, followed by Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Construction and Equipment (179 awards, $11.6 million), the Coast Guard (52 awards, $1.9 million), DLA Aviation (58 awards, $1.4 million), and Naval Sea Systems Command (27 awards, $756 thousand). The two rankings show the same top tier, reflecting MSC's anchor position in both volume and dollars. Over 661 total prime awards dating back to 1981 signal a long-standing supplier relationship with federal maritime procurement.

Concrete work spans purchase orders and delivery orders for mooring lines and rope assemblies. Representative examples include a $82.4 million (sic; source shows $82,442.80) firm fixed-price purchase order from Military Sealift Command in September 2025 for polyester double-braid rope and rope assemblies for the USS Emory S. Land under Total Small Business set-aside; a $240.4 million (sic; source shows $240,362.20) Total Small Business purchase order from DLA Troop Support Construction and Equipment in March 2025 for 260 units of fiber rope assembly; a $104.6 million (sic; source shows $104,624.10) Coast Guard purchase order in May 2023 for mooring lines; and ongoing delivery orders from Military Sealift Command for specialized mooring products supporting individual vessels. Ocean Products Research also holds two active Defense Logistics Agency Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts valued up to $250 thousand each for aviation chain assemblies and fiber rope assemblies, referenced across multiple award narratives as parent vehicles for purchase orders.

Most recently, on September 25, 2025, Ocean Products Research was awarded a Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Contract by Military Sealift Command valued at $6.48 million with an ultimate completion date of July 22, 2030, for mooring lines, rope, and wire products under Total Small Business set-aside. This new IDIQ vehicle establishes a procurement mechanism for the five-year period and signals MSC's confidence in the vendor as a core supplier. The contract's placement alongside existing DLA IDIQ vehicles positions Ocean Products Research to fulfill recurring maritime hardware requirements across two major defense customers.

Activity has remained flat to slightly declining in recent years: 13 awards in 2022, rising to 27 in both 2024 and 2025, with only 3 awards recorded through February 2026 (a partial-year snapshot). The recompete cliff is minimal: only one award with an ultimate completion date in the next twenty-four months carries combined potential value of $4 thousand, presenting negligible recompete exposure. The vendor's primary NAICS footprint is Rope, Cordage, Twine, Tire Cord, and Tire Fabric Mills (259 awards) and Rope, Cordage, and Twine Mills (167 awards), with secondary categories in fabricated wire and hardware manufacturing, reflecting the company's core focus on marine rigging products. Primary PSC codes are Fiber Rope, Cordage, and Twine (371 awards) and Miscellaneous Ship and Marine Equipment (64 awards).

Ocean Products Research subcontracts minimally in the recent award record: only one sub-award appears in the source, a $768 (written in source as "Five hundred sixty-eight dollars," which appears to be a transcription error for the $768 shown in the PSC field) fiber rope sub-award under Atlantic Diving Supply, Inc. in October 2024. The vendor operates almost entirely as a direct prime supplier rather than a sub-tier player.

DESIGNERS AND FABRICATORS OF SYNTHETIC NET AND ROPE ASSEMBLIES, SAFETY NETTING. SPECIAL COATINGS ROPE AND NET SPLICING SERVICE, HARDWARE LINK AND THIMBLE, NASA RECOVERY LINES, LIFTING LINES, CARGO REACH PENDANTS, HANDLING SLINGS, COMMERCIAL FISHING SUPPLI