Albuquerque Business First has again recognized Verus Research as a New Mexico “top private company” on the publication’s 2023 list, coming in at #22 overall.

This marks the third consecutive year for Verus Research to earn this honor.

To make this prestigious list, a company must be a privately owned and for-profit enterprise.

Verus Research ranked #24 in 2022.

Coverage can be seen at this location.

In a string of honors reaching back to 2016, Verus Research is again on the Flying 40 list of New Mexico’s fastest growing technology companies.

In this 26th anniversary year for the Flying 40, Verus Research came in at number 8 for fastest growing companies, posting 162 percent growth since the 2018 base year in the study.

Additionally, Verus Research came in at number 9 for total revenue.

The awards celebrate the success of the homegrown firms included on the annual list, while also drawing the state’s attention to the critical role New Mexico’s technology sector plays in diversifying the local economy.

Flying 40 awards are sponsored and presented by the New Mexico Technology Council.  You can find a complete list of this year’s honorees by visiting this link.

The U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) has awarded Verus Research a $203 million ceiling increase on its current indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract.  With an ordering period running through 2029, the contract, Test & Evaluation Non-Kinetic, or TEN-K, will enable Verus Research to further improve the U.S. Department of Defense’s ability to test the effectiveness of rapidly developing non-kinetic capabilities, including directed energy, electronic warfare, and nuclear systems.  This award represents the largest in Company history.

Work on this project will include the design and development of agile surrogate high-power microwave systems; specialized sensors, instrumentation, and diagnostics required to validate performance of non-kinetic systems; and continued development of the Company’s dense plasma focus capability.  All of these technical outcomes will serve to create enhanced and enduring capabilities for the nation’s major range and test facility infrastructure.

Dan Treibel, Verus Research’s Chief Operating Officer, noted that the award “affirms Verus Research’s industry-leading position in directed energy technologies and diagnostic systems” and is strong evidence of our customer’s “high level of satisfaction with our performance to date and innovative plans for the future.”

Please see the exciting coverage that aired on 3/28 and 3/29/2023.

Verus Research announces the award by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division in Indiana of a $52M, 56-month effort to establish a radiation combined environments test capability. Contracted under the “Cornerstone” Other Transaction Authority (OTA), the program will design, develop, integrate, test, and deliver a combined environment test capability comprised of neutrons and gamma radiation energy.

To meet NSWC Crane’s requirements, Verus Research will develop “Orthrus,” a neutron and gamma test capability comprised of a dense plasma focus (DPF) neutron source and an electron linear accelerator gamma simulator. Under a current contract supporting the Survivability Vulnerability and Assessment Directorate at White Sands Missile Range, Verus Research is already developing the Axial Radiator for Electronics Exposure System (AREES), the only DPF capable of meeting Crane’s neutron source requirements. Under the Navy effort, Verus Research will build AREES-II as the neutron source and has teamed with Treas Engineering and Element Aero to develop a new electron linear accelerator (known as “Tempest”) capable of meeting the needs for gamma/X-ray simulation.

The need for a high-intensity, pulsed neutron source combined with a prompt ionizing radiation dose is derived from the requirement for military systems to successfully operate in the presence of nuclear weapon detonations. When integrated, AREES-II and Tempest will provide a revolutionary combined radiation test capability suitable for ensuring the survivability and operability of U.S. systems in the harshest of environments.

Dr. J. Mark DelGrande, Verus Research Chief Technology Officer, took note of the work of the “entire Verus Research team that was able to successfully propose a large and intricate hardware integration effort a totally new customer in NSWC Crane.”  Dr. DelGrande went on to observe that “Verus Research demonstrated to NSWC Crane a level of technical and corporate maturity found in much larger companies, instilling confidence in the Navy and garnering one of our company’s most significant wins.”

Verus Research has been awarded a $37.5M, 5-year contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate to develop “Tools for Enabling Autonomous Multi-satellite Systems (TEAMS).”

The effort is intended to build the necessary technology and capabilities for demonstrating autonomous, coordinated satellite operations, with a focus on quantifying the advantages of using autonomy to solve specific problems and providing the assurances to deploy the resulting solutions with confidence. The culmination of TEAMS will be a series of autonomy payloads that will integrate into an on-orbit space experiment that demonstrates a specific autonomy use case and establishes autonomy as a beneficial tool for satellite operators.

TEAMS builds upon Verus Research’s expertise in designing and verifying autonomy software, supporting satellite communications and radio frequency systems, and advancing autonomy research and testbed development. TEAMS will also leverage our existing algorithms and software to provide the enabling tools and payload for conducting a successful autonomy flight experiment.

To support the overall TEAMS program, Verus Research is proud to partner with the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque-based IDEAS Engineering & Technology, Trusted Space, Inc., and the Georgia Tech Research Corporations.

Dr. J. Mark DelGrande, Verus Research Chief Technology Officer, notes “this award reflects a purposeful and sustained Company effort to meet emerging needs for autonomy in space, resulting Verus Research becoming a cutting-edge contributor in autonomy, machine learning, and their applications in both space and terrestrial environments.”

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate has awarded Verus Research a $750K, 2-year Phase II Small Business Innovative Research contract to design and develop an antenna prototype to help mitigate high energy electrons trapped in the Earth’s radiation belts using very low frequency (VLF) whistler modes. The design will be suitable for space flight.

Under this program, Verus Research has teamed with LoadPath, a wholly owned business unit of Redwire Corporation, and Georgia Tech Research Corporation to meet AFRL’s needs and continue Verus Research’s original research in the development of a large deployable parametric antenna capable of remediating the Van Allen Belts after a high-altitude nuclear event.  Several key technologies will be matured in this effort, including a large (10-meter radius), space-deployable hoop antenna, a high power very low frequency resonant drive, and a novel plasma density wave source.

The U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) office has awarded a $1.2M, 18-month Phase II Small Business Innovative Research contract to Verus Research to enable the development of compact and inexpensive, plasma-based, widely-tunable frequency impedance elements (a.k.a. plasma switches and antennas).

The effort will produce articles capable of sustained high-power operation in contested and denied electromagnetic environments by maturing Verus Research’s novel designs for a sub-10 nanosecond microwave broadband limiter-switch.  Deliverables include an environmentally qualified prototype.

Under the rubric of “High Power Electromagnetics (HPEM) Empirical Effects” support, Verus Research has been awarded a competitively selected $19.5M, 5-year effort aimed at advancing the understanding and quantifying of HPEM effects on behalf of the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate.

The effort includes the performance of indoor and outdoor effects tests to generate vulnerability data on electronic systems to determine the effectiveness of different HPEM waveform parameters. The goal is to identify waveforms and the systems that generate them that meet effectiveness requirements while also adhering to size, weight, and power constraints.

In addition, Verus Research will study fundamental effects mechanisms, supporting the development of techniques and models to predict the effectiveness of HPEM waveforms which will augment empirical testing and modeling.

The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) at Patuxent River, Maryland, in conjunction with the Naval Research Laboratory NRL), has awarded Verus Research a $4.7M, 2-year contract to design, develop, and integrate an ultra-wideband (UWB) high-power microwave test and evaluation (T&E) system.

This program was originally scoped to deliver only an antenna array capable of accepting the output from NRL’s Time Reversal Pulse Compression (TRPC) Cavity Oscillator and broadcasting power at the tens of megawatts level across a bandwidth of almost 6 gigahertz.  This objective capitalized on a novel antenna design developed by Dr. Sameer Hemmady, Verus Research Senior Director of Advanced Concepts.

Upon further consideration, though, the NRL added additional scope and funding to the effort such that Verus Research will now also perform the full integration of the T&E source which is projected to support NAWC testing requirements at MIL-STD-464 levels for 10 years.