Zkxkz LLC

Zkxkz LLC, a Massachusetts-based small business, provides specialized research and development services to federal defense and transportation agencies exclusively as a prime contractor, with all 25 awards in its recent footprint designated as Total Small Business set-asides. The company focuses on advanced sensing, imaging systems, and materials innovation for defense applications, performing work from its Lexington, Massachusetts facility.

The customer base concentrates heavily on Department of Defense research components. The Air Force Research Laboratory anchors the portfolio with eight awards totaling $6.7 million combined potential value, followed by the Department of the Army (four awards, $2.2 million), the Department of Transportation (four awards, $2.2 million), and the Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command (four awards, $1.1 million). These five agencies account for 88% of all awards and 94% of combined potential value. The Defense Health Agency contributes one award valued at $1.3 million. Zkxkz's award portfolio skews toward applied research in defense contexts—16 awards fall under NAICS 541712 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology), with primary PSC coding concentrated in defense applied research.

Zkxkz operates almost exclusively through the Small Business Innovation Research program. Recent representative work includes a $1.3 million Defense Health Agency Direct to Phase II SBIR award (August 2024) for wireless, wearable personal metabolic sensor development; a $1.25 million Air Force Research Laboratory purchase order (May 2022) for a high-energy upgrade to a quantitative x-ray system; a $750,000 Air Force Research Laboratory Phase II SBIR effort (July 2022) for x-ray-based automated arena test data collection hardware and software; a $250,000 Department of the Army Phase I SBIR contract (January 2023) for AI/ML visual processing of energetic defects; and a $206,499 Department of Transportation Phase I SBIR award (August 2025) for modular construction of protected intersections. The company has accumulated nearly $6 million in prior SBIR awards since at least 2014, building recurring expertise in x-ray imaging systems, defense sensors, and advanced materials.

Activity is modest but distributed—two awards in 2021, three in 2022, two in 2023, one in 2024, and two in 2025—with three awards (combined potential value $3.3 million) reaching completion within the next twenty-four months. Zkxkz maintains a 100% prime position with no subcontract footprint in the source data, indicating it executes research development work directly rather than leading prime teams.