Recon RF, Inc.

Recon RF, Inc., a San Diego-based minority-owned, veteran-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned small disadvantaged business, designs and manufactures custom microwave and millimeter-wave components, radio frequency integrated circuits, and solid-state power amplifiers for aerospace and defense applications, operating exclusively as a prime contractor on federal contracts and grants (100% of recent awards). The company competes across both set-aside and full-and-open vehicles, with recent work split between Total Small Business set-asides (dominant across Air Force and NASA contracts) and unrestricted competition (Missile Defense Agency, National Science Foundation, NIST, National Telecommunications and Information Administration).

Recon RF's capability portfolio concentrates on high-efficiency power amplifier design and fabrication. Concrete representative work includes a $1.75 million Total Small Business purchase order from the Air Force Research Laboratory (awarded September 2025) for next-generation X-band solid-state power amplifiers supporting radar, electronic warfare, and communications; a $1.19 million Total Small Business order from AFRL (May 2024) for ultra-efficient radio frequency integrated circuit power amplifiers for phased-array communications; a $1.18 million SBIR Phase II definitive contract from NASA (August 2022) for high-efficiency S-band solid-state power amplifiers for synthetic aperture radar platforms; and a $900 thousand SBIR Phase II contract from the Shared Services Center (June 2024) for ultra-efficient P/UHF band power amplifiers. The company also holds a $151 billion ceiling Indefinite Delivery Contract awarded by the Missile Defense Agency under the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program (December 2025, running through December 2035), with a single $500 initial task order issued to date.

Federal grant work adds material research momentum. Recon RF is a $9.46 million recipient under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (CFDA 11.038, running February 2025 through January 2030) to develop ultra-efficient front-end modules for 5G/6G open radio units; a $287 thousand recipient of a NIST Cooperative Agreement under the CHIPS Research and Development program (CFDA 11.042, October 2024 through April 2027) for next-generation large-signal transistor modeling techniques; and an NSF SBIR Phase II cooperative-agreement recipient (September 2022 through April 2028) for low-cost, high-efficiency gallium-nitride radio frequency integrated circuit power amplifiers. The company also holds Department of Energy Office of Science project grants for ultra-low-noise cryogenic HEMT amplifiers and ultra-efficient X-band solid-state power amplifiers for RF accelerators.

Customer concentration centers on aerospace and defense R&D agencies. The Air Force Sustainment Center and Air Force Research Laboratory together account for eight awards valued at $7.4 million combined potential value; NASA Shared Services Center placed six awards valued at $2.4 million; and the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy Office of Science each placed two awards. The SHIELD Indefinite Delivery Contract represents a departure into full-and-open, multi-domain defense procurement, though dollar obligations to date remain modest.

Activity has grown modestly year over year — two awards in 2022 to five in 2024 — with five awards (combined potential value $2.9 million) facing ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore subject to recompete or renewal. Five awards are set to complete by September 2026. The combined dollars obligated across all awards total $20.9 million, exceeding combined potential value, reflecting task orders and obligations against earlier contract ceilings. Recon RF maintains no sub-award footprint and performs all work at its San Diego facility or at customer sites (including Huntsville, Alabama under SHIELD).

ReconRF designs high-performing high-frequency power MMIC & MIC amplifiers leveraging state-of-the art device metrology and modeling laboratory capabilities.

ReconRF serves as an adjunct design-partner &/or independent RF design-services entity for challenging GaN MMIC power-amplifier projects & programs; especially for designs where performance is a requisite discriminator - efficiency, power added efficiency, linearity, output power, etc.

A RF design methodology grounded in rigorous & accurate device characterization, modeling, attention to detail, and manufacturing

Next-generation behavioral modeling, load-pull, measurement based models, etc.? integrated into design-flow (especially high-power devices: GaN, HBT, CMOS, etc.)

Uncompromising proactive culture for: technical rigor, attention to detail, & speed

High-Value on education: design automation, next-generation modeling, advanced characterizations, design-techniques, theory, new software features/tools, etc.