Johns Hopkins APL Wins $500 Million DARPA Engineering and Research Contract

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, has received a sole-source contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for engineering, development and research services. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a ceiling of $499.8 million and is intended to establish and maintain an essential capability to apply scientific and technical research findings to engineering and developmental work. Work will take place primarily in Laurel, and the ordering period is expected to end in October 2031.

DARPA Engineering and Research Capability Details

APL will provide engineering, developmental and research capabilities through task orders issued under the contract. The award notice describes work that calls for the practical application of investigative findings and scientific or technical theories, rather than a single defined research project or production effort.

Individual task orders will establish the work DARPA purchases under the vehicle. The award notice does not identify particular systems, facilities or technical deliverables for those orders. The contract instead gives DARPA a means to draw on APL’s research and engineering capability as requirements arise.

Award and Contractor Background

DARPA made the award as a sole-source acquisition. No funds were obligated at award; the agency said it would obligate the minimum guaranteed amount with the first task order. The $499.8 million ceiling represents the maximum potential contract value, not an amount already committed.

APL is a university-affiliated research center, a type of organization that provides specialized research capabilities to federal sponsors. A Government Accountability Office report on defense laboratory-initiated research describes how APL has used that role to begin work on emerging defense technologies that sponsors later funded. DARPA also seeks project-specific ideas through solicitations such as its Defense Sciences Office office-wide research solicitation; this award, by contrast, establishes a continuing engineering and research capability for work to be defined in task orders.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under HR001127DE001 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.