Around three months after announcing a $52 million contract, its largest ever at the time, Verus Research recently announced it topped that — by more than $150 million.
On May 25, Verus Research, the Albuquerque-based research and development company, announced a $203 million "ceiling increase" on a contract with the U.S. Army. That existing contract with the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation is called an "indefinite delivery indefinite quantity" contract, or IDIQ.
It's a type of multi-year umbrella contract that allows specific "delivery orders" to be submitted under it, said Dan Treibel, Verus Research's chief operating officer. The "ceiling" of the contract represents the total maximum value of all those delivery orders.
"What this is allowing us to do is have more delivery orders in the future under this umbrella contract," Treibel said.
"It's encouraging because this is kind of a signal that they have liked the work we've done and are interested in us doing more," he added regarding the U.S. Army contract. "It means that … we get to do more of the fun science and research that solve hard problems, and we get to do more technology maturation."
It's a particularly broad contract, Treibel said, that addresses directed energy, electronic warfare and nuclear systems and effects — or "a little under half" of the technology Verus focuses on. The company's work under the contract is carried out "almost exclusively" in Albuquerque, he said, where the company employs around 130 people.
The terms of the IDIQ umbrella contract say that Verus can submit proposals under it for the next six years, Treibel said. The company wants to begin submitting paperwork for the first new contract under the ceiling increase in the next month or so, he added.
"Historically, we have been able to complete our ordering to fill up the ceiling before that time period," Treibel said. "So, we're expecting probably over the next three to four years is when we'll have the contracts that fill up that ceiling."
Verus currently has "several active contracts" with about 30 customers across the federal government, and the company is looking to grow in the areas of electronic warfare and space and autonomy, he said. Aside from the $52 million contract with the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Crane Division announced in February, Verus has also recently landed contracts with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs office.
Treibel said this ceiling increase and the additional contracts that could stem from it could lead to more hiring in Albuquerque down the road. But because the company doesn't yet have insight into what specific contracts it could land under the IDIQ umbrella, he wasn't able to offer a timeline or a specific number of new hires expected.
Verus currently has eight openings listed on its website.
The company, founded in 2014, has been one of New Mexico's fastest-growing in recent years. It has its headquarters at 6100 Uptown Blvd. NE, Suite 260, and about one year ago opened a research laboratory in Northeast Albuquerque.
