An Albuquerque technology company has continued its streak of landing multi-million dollar research and development contracts, and on Wednesday announced its largest one yet.
Verus Research announced it will receive a $52 million, 56-month contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Crane Division, based in Crane, Indiana. The contract supports the development of a combined environment test capability, called Orthus.
The company anticipates hiring at least 15 new employees with average annual salaries of $140,000 over the next few months to support its work under the Navy contract, Dan Treibel, Verus' chief operating officer, told Albuquerque Business First in a Feb. 10 email. That hiring would bring Verus' total number of employees in Albuquerque to over 130, he said in the email.
"This new contract is ground-breaking for Verus Research on many levels," according to Treibel. "It's our largest ever, a new customer and [supports] creation of a never-before-attempted combined effects testing regime to ensure the survivability of U.S. systems in the harshest of environments."
Orthus combines neutron and gamma test capabilities, according to a Verus Research news release. It builds on previous Verus research of dense plasma focus neutron source systems. That research work, dubbed the Axial Radiator for Electronic Exposure System, or AREES, is the only dense plasma focus system capable of meeting the Navy's neutron source requirements, according to the release.
Verus will work on building AREES-II under this new contract, and the Albuquerque company will team with California-based Treas Engineering and Illinois-based Element Aero to develop a new electronic linear accelerator, called Tempest, that can meet Navy gamma simulation requirements.
Landing this new Navy contract marks more expansion for one of the state's fastest-growing companies in recent years. Verus also landed a $37.5 million multi-year contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory in late December and announced two other U.S military contracts in late October.
Founded in 2014, Verus has its headquarters at 6100 Uptown Blvd NE, Suite 260. It opened a research laboratory in Northeast Albuquerque last spring.
The company's research services are in three areas, including high-power systems, sensors and instrumentation and software development and applications.
