Starfire Industries LLC

Starfire Industries LLC, a Champaign, Illinois-based manufacturer of advanced scientific instrumentation and specialized coatings, operates as a prime contractor (96% of recent awards) on federal research and development contracts across defense, energy, and homeland security agencies, competing predominantly full-and-open rather than under set-aside categories. The company is structured as a limited liability partnership and for-profit organization with a parent entity, Starfire Industries Management, Inc., and a named subsidiary, Stargate Irradiation, Inc.

Starfire's capability portfolio centers on neutron generators, plasma sources, physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings, high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technologies, and electron cyclotron resonance systems for scientific measurement, materials processing, and radiation applications. Representative prime work includes a $3.5 million DARPA SBIR Phase II contract (awarded December 2023, completing December 2026) for low-cost, megawatt-scale direct current linear accelerators for electron beam and X-ray production; a $2.8 million Department of Homeland Security Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction definitive contract (July 2024, completing November 2026) for next-generation high-voltage electron cyclotron resonance systems; a $1.25 million Air Force Research Laboratory SBIR Phase II contract (September 2023, completing December 2025) for quasi-conformal ionized PVD coatings using HiPIMS for additive manufacturing of refractory alloys; and a $144.7 thousand NIST purchase order (March 2026, completing November 2026) for a portable Deuterium-Deuterium neutron generator supporting semiconductor measurement under the CHIPS initiative. Starfire also holds a $2.66 million Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program contract with Humphreys Engineer Center Support Activity (June 2023, completing June 2027) and a $1.05 million DOE NNSA SBIR Phase III contract (September 2021, completing September 2024) for neutron source replacement in downhole well logging.

Customer concentration skews toward research and defense agencies. The top five customers by award count account for 51% of recent awards: the Department of Energy Office of Science leads with 18 awards, followed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (5 awards, $2.2 million combined potential value), DARPA (5 awards, $16.5 million combined potential value), the Department of Homeland Security Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (4 awards, $5.4 million combined potential value), and the Navy Naval Supply Systems Command Engineering Logistics Office (4 awards, $390 thousand combined potential value). By potential value, DARPA dominates at $16.5 million (49% of the top-five dollar share), with DHS CWMD contributing $5.4 million and the Army Materiel Command and Air Force Research Laboratory rounding out the roster. The Department of Energy Office of Science, while first by award count, carries smaller per-award values reflecting its grant-focused activity. Starfire serves 25 distinct federal agencies across the recent portfolio.

Starfire competes on research and development vehicles; the source identifies only one parent vehicle — the Information Analysis Center Multiple-Award Contract with one task order. The company's portfolio concentrates heavily in NAICS 541712 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences) across 23 awards, with secondary concentrations in irradiation apparatus manufacturing (4 awards) and analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing (3 awards). The top PSC codes reflect applied research and exploratory development (R&D- Defense Other, 8 awards) and operational systems development in electronics and communications (4 awards).

Activity has been episodic rather than steady-state: one award in 2021, seven in 2023, nine in 2024, three in 2025, and one in 2026 through mid-March. Five awards with combined potential value of $9.1 million reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure. The combined dollars obligated across all awards ($52.9 million) exceed combined potential value ($33.6 million) by 58%, indicating significant incremental funding modifications and option exercises on mature contracts.

Starfire's federal grant footprint operates through the Department of Energy Office of Science (CFDA 81.049). The company is a prime recipient on nine grants, most recent in July 2025: two project grants on PVD manufacturing for nuclear fuel cladding and advanced coating applications (ultimate completion July 2026), one on in-line metrology for thin-film PVD advanced technology fuel coatings ($200 thousand, July 2024–July 2025), one on downhole wireline prompt gamma activation analysis probes using neutron generators ($250 thousand, July 2024–July 2025), one on multilayer thin-film coatings for titanium electrolyzer bipolar plates ($200 thousand, July 2024–July 2025), and four on HiPIMS technologies for photovoltaic manufacturing, superconducting tape processing, and fuel cell bipolar plates (July 2023 awards, completing July 2024–September 2026). Starfire acts as a grant sub-recipient under the University of Illinois (November 2024) on hydrogen plasma research for taconite ore reduction and under Southwest Research Institute (January 2024) on impulse magnetron systems.

On the contract side, Starfire operates as a subcontractor through HII Mission Technologies Corp on a counter-explosive hazard research task for the Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (January 2024). The SCI dataset shows minimal service-contract activity above the $150,000 reporting threshold: $556 thousand invoiced across four records (FY2022–FY2024), with 1.3 FTEs in FY2022, 0.3 FTEs in FY2024, and no activity in FY2023. Government-paid hourly rates on these service contracts ran a median of $223.96/hr, with 10th-percentile rates at $153.85/hr and 90th-percentile rates at $294.07/hr. Starfire performed all hours directly across these records, with no subcontractor hours reported to SCI. The low SCI count reflects Starfire's business model: most federal work flows through research and development contracts and grants (goods, equipment, and R&D labor billed as CLIN-based development efforts) rather than service contracts priced on hourly rates.

Starfire Industries is an engineering research and development company founded in 2001 to study advanced applications in nuclear, plasma and aerospace engineering technology.