Saber Astronautics, LLC

Saber Astronautics, LLC, a veteran-owned small business based in Boulder, Colorado, operates as a prime contractor delivering space technology research, advanced battle management systems, and homeland defense systems engineering to the Department of the Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency, and NASA. The company competes full-and-open on its largest vehicle and under total small business set-asides on its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards.

Saber Astronautics holds two major indefinite delivery contracts that anchor its federal footprint. The first is a $950 million multiple-award IDC with the Department of the Air Force for Joint All Domain Command and Control Support, running through May 28, 2030, under which the company delivers advanced battle management systems, space situational awareness capabilities, and integrated command and control services across air, space, and cyber domains. The second is a $151 billion multiple-award IDIQ with the Missile Defense Agency designated Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD), awarded December 29, 2025, and extending through December 28, 2035. The SHIELD contract, which utilizes full-and-open competition with no set-aside designation, covers comprehensive research, development, prototyping, systems engineering, weapon design, production, test and evaluation, cybersecurity, and modernization services for multi-domain defense systems capable of detecting, tracking, intercepting, and neutralizing air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats. Work areas include disruptive technologies, advanced systems integration leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, and digital engineering. The initial SHIELD delivery order, valued at $500 and awarded December 29, 2025, is scheduled for performance in Huntsville, Alabama.

Recent SBIR work demonstrates Saber's core R&D capabilities. The company delivered a $1.25 million SBIR Phase II contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for WINDU: THE DIGITAL GUARDIAN, a sandbox for modeling threats in non-standard regimes (ultimate completion February 16, 2026), and a $1.19 million AFRL definitive contract for the same threat-modeling capability (completed June 1, 2025). Additional SBIR Phase II work includes a $1.25 million Space Application Marketplace contract from AFRL (November 2024), a $750 thousand SENTINEL predictive space traffic alerting system from AFRL (June 2023), and a $520 thousand SPACE COCKPIT research contract from AFRL (September 2023). Earlier Phase III work includes a $375 thousand Space Weather Visualization contract from the Space and Missile Systems Center (completed September 2023).

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the Air Force ecosystem. The Department of the Air Force accounts for the majority of combined potential value ($950 million), while the Air Force Research Laboratory anchors 9 awards with $7 million combined potential value. The Missile Defense Agency contributes $500 across 2 awards. NASA's Shared Services Center appears on 4 awards for $256 thousand combined potential value. Across 18 total awards dating to 2014, only $7.6 million has been obligated (1% of combined potential value), reflecting the high ceiling-value-to-obligation ratio typical of multi-year SBIR Phase II and Phase III work and large IDC vehicles early in their performance periods. Award frequency has been volatile — 5 awards in 2022, 2 in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 2 in 2025 — with primary activity concentrated in SBIR competitions and the recently awarded SHIELD vehicle. Saber operates exclusively as a prime contractor (100% of awards) with no subcontractor relationships captured in the federal award data. The Service Contract Inventory shows minimal SCI activity: one FY2022 record reporting 0.9 FTEs as a named subcontractor, indicating Saber's federal work is predominantly R&D and systems engineering rather than labor-hour service delivery above the SCI reporting threshold.