Applied Radar Inc. has been selected to receive an additional $6.4 M in new contracts from the Department of Defense (DoD), according to company CEO William H. Weedon. The new funding consists of $4.0 M in SBIR/STTR funding, through four separate contracts, from the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for Next-Generation Radar and a $2.4 M congressional appropriation to develop a Wideband Digital Airborne Electronic Sensing Array for the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). “While many industries are downsizing, the DoD is still investing heavily in basic technologies and advanced demonstrations to maintain our nation’s technological superiority,” said Weedon. The funding will be used to develop advanced prototypes of phased-array radar and electronic sensing hardware. Applied Radar is teamed with MIT/Lincoln Labs, Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin on the Missile Defense work out of Huntsville, AL. The AFRL work is contracted through Hanscom AFB in Bedford, MA. The FY09 congressional appropriation was supported by Senator Jack Reed and Congressman James Langevin.

The Department of Defense (DoD) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program provides basic and applied research funding for a small business such as Applied Radar Inc. with less than 500 employees to develop novel technology solutions primarily for military applications. Often, a portion of the technology, including hardware prototypes, are spun off and further developed by the small business as commercial products. Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts, on the other hand, are aimed at transferring technology from a federally-funded research and development facility (FFRDC), such as MIT/Lincoln Labs in Lexington, MA, to the small business. Applied Radar has already applied for and been awarded several patents resulting from the SBIR/STTR work, and has plans to commercialize several of the hardware items as catalog items on its own and through prime DoD contractors such as Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin into larger military programs.