ANDRO lands $15 million SBIR contract for U.S. Army work

ROME, N.Y. — ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC has won a $15 million contract to design and build an electronic signal-detection unit for the U.S. Army.

The Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Catalyst Program is the contracting agency. ANDRO was among five finalists, out of 26 proposals, selected to accelerate innovation for the SBIR Catalyst pilot. The program uses matching capital from transition partners and major weapons-system integrators to drive contracts up to $75 million to tackle Army customer needs.

“As one of just five small businesses selected to receive this highly competitive U.S. Army contract, ANDRO’s $15 million award is a major win for Oneida County’s small business and defense communities,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said in a news release. “This contract is not only a boost to the Mohawk Valley regional economy, but it will help our armed forces accelerate the development of new artificial intelligence capabilities, which is critical to both our national defense and competitiveness on the international stage.”

The Catalyst Program focuses on proposals with solutions within specific technology ecosystems where small businesses lead in innovation. The program prioritizes ecosystems including artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), climate and clean tech, autonomy, and supply chain logistics in the Indo-Pacific region.

ANDRO’s work, under its Marconi-Rosenblatt AI Innovation Lab team led by Jithin Jagannath and Anu Jagannath, will be on “DeepSPEC: Artificial Intelligence-Powered Blind Signal Detector and Classifier” in cooperation with potential Army transition partner PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors — PL Tactical Space Superiority.

The contract award has the potential for multi-phase funding opportunities for up to $15 million for each winner, for a contract pool of up to $75 million total under the program.

“Through these R&D investments, the Army SBIR Program leverages capital to buy down risk for the Army’s larger, more scalable acquisition profile,” ANDRO President Andrew Drozd said in the release. The program will overcome untapped potential to transition Army technology challenges into major weapon-systems programs by synchronizing small-business innovation with Army transition partners and integrators, providing resources for advanced prototype development testing and transition.

Headquartered at Griffiss Business and Technology Park, ANDRO provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries in advanced spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, software-based waveform development, cognitive software-defined radio networking, multi-sensor data fusion, and sensor-resource management.