Quinstar Technology, Incorporated

Quinstar Technology, Incorporated, a minority-owned, Asian-Pacific American-owned small business based in Torrance, California, manufactures millimeter-wave and radio frequency components as a prime contractor (89% of awards) and subcontractor on defense electronics programs. The company is a Subchapter S corporation structured as a for-profit manufacturer of goods, holding ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certifications and competing primarily on full-and-open and total small business set-aside designations — SBIR and STTR programs anchor much of the R&D work, while production orders flow through both set-aside and unrestricted competitive procurements.

Quinstar's capability portfolio centers on solid-state power amplifiers, transceivers, filters, switches, circulators, and frequency multipliers spanning 3 GHz to 114 GHz, with production and R&D work supporting Navy and Air Force weapons systems, Department of Defense sensor and radar platforms, satellite communications, guided missiles, and scientific instrumentation. Representative prime work includes a $4 billion Indefinite Delivery Contract with Naval Sea Systems Command under the SeaPort Next Generation program (awarded January 2025, running through January 2029), a $1.999 billion Office of Naval Research SBIR Phase II contract for millimeter-wave technology R&D (cost-plus-fixed-fee, running through January 2026), a $749.9 million Air Force Research Laboratory SBIR Phase II contract for dual-band, multi-platform high-power amplifiers for satcom uplinks (completed September 2024), and multiple purchase orders from Naval Air Warfare Center for Ka-band and V-band transceivers at $237 thousand to $379 thousand ceiling values, awarded on sole-source basis for direct replacement parts.

Customer concentration sits overwhelmingly with the Department of the Navy. The top five agencies account for 64% of award count, but the dollars are heavily skewed: Naval Sea Systems Command anchors $4 billion in combined potential value through the SeaPort-NxG IDC, while the Office of Naval Research (95 awards, $5.5 million), Naval Air Warfare Center (54 awards, $4.5 million), Air Force Research Laboratory (28 awards, $12.6 million), and NASA Shared Services Center (15 awards, $4.9 million) make up the balance. The SeaPort-NxG vehicle dominates the portfolio — a single IDC with a $4 billion ceiling masks the fact that Quinstar is executing small-dollar production orders and SBIR awards across Navy, Air Force, Army, NIST, and civilian agency Shared Services Centers.

Activity has grown in recent years, moving from five awards in 2022 to fourteen in 2025, with two awards recorded in 2026 year-to-date. Only one award ($247 thousand in combined potential value) reaches completion within the next twenty-four months, reducing near-term recompete pressure; the bulk of Quinstar's SeaPort-NxG ceiling remains available for future task orders through 2029. Across the NAICS footprint, radio and television broadcasting and wireless communications equipment manufacturing (78 awards) and other electronic component manufacturing (65 awards) drive the award count, reflecting Quinstar's role as a component supplier rather than a systems integrator.

In its subcontractor role, Quinstar delivers millimeter-wave products and RF components to Assurance Technology Corp (complex action and TERFS platforms), L3Harris Technologies (AN/PLM-4 radar signal simulator production and repair), Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC (advanced anti-radiation guided missile test assets and missile products), Sierra Nevada Company LLC (beacon receiver assemblies), and Valkyrie Enterprises LLC (MIT Lincoln Laboratory RF components). The subcontract base is substantial and recurrent — multiple Assurance Technology Corp awards in 2021 involve millimeter-wave product delivery to support TERFS R&D and complex action platforms.

Quinstar's vehicle position is centered on the SeaPort-NxG IDC with Naval Sea Systems Command, the only parent vehicle generating material task-order volume in the source data. This single vehicle represents the strategic anchor of Quinstar's federal business, providing a $4 billion ceiling from which the company can bid production and engineering task orders supporting multi-service Navy and Air Force programs. SBIR and STTR programs constitute the second major vehicle category, with eighteen awards across phase-one and phase-two efforts from civilian and defense agencies.