Aerospace Corp. wins $79M federal contract

Company will expand nuclear support efforts, grow workforce

The National Nuclear Security Administration is seeking a lot more engineering and technical support for its nuclear modernization and deterrence programs through a five-year, $79 million contract it awarded this month to the The Aerospace Corp., an engineering and technology giant that operates a bustling center of operations in Uptown Albuquerque.

Aerospace, a 60-year-old company based in California, has provided support services to the NNSA in Albuquerque for many years. But this is the first direct NNSA contract won by the firm, reflecting a new level of cooperation with Aerospace as the NNSA intensifies its nuclear life extension and nonproliferation efforts, said Ed Vaughan, Aerospace principal director for NNSA programs.

Previously, Aerospace provided services to the NNSA under a separate contract with the Space & Missiles Center at Kirtland Air Force Base.

“NNSA basically piggybacked on the SMC contract for us to do work for them,” Vaughan said. “… This new contract establishes a direct relationship to provide federally funded research and development support. It enables the NNSA to leverage all of Aerospace’s capabilities built up over the last 60 years.”

That includes access to Aerospace’s nationwide “brain trust” of scientists and engineers, including those at its high-tech labs in El Segundo, Calif.

“If NNSA has specific elements or components they need analyzed, we can take them to our lab for assessments or testing on performance characteristics or on problems the components might have and provide that information back to the NNSA,” Vaughan said.

NNSA helped Aerospace expand and modernize its Albuquerque operations center last year, including an IT upgrade that installed a new node directly linking the company with the NNSA and other agencies at Kirtland to streamline communications.

“Last summer, the NNSA collaborated with us to complete upgrades to our service facility,” said Mark Jelonek, Aerospace general manager for the Advanced Development and Planning Division. “This new contract consummates NNSA’s continued interest in the support we provide. It represents the next step in our collaboration.”

The new NNSA contract and ongoing technical and engineering support Aerospace provides to space-related entities at Kirtland have allowed the company to ramp up its local workforce, from 75 to 100 last year and another 25 new hires expected this year, Jelonek said.

Aerospace scientists and engineers are embedded at all levels of nuclear modernization and nonproliferation work at Kirtland and Sandia National Laboratories, as well as Kirtland-based efforts to modernize space-related defense assets.

“Over the last two years, we’ve tripled the number of people we have working with the Space Rapid Capabilities office at Kirtland,” Jelonek said.

The company has local positions open for engineers and scientists.

“These are good-paying STEM jobs, and more are on the way for our Albuquerque office in the coming weeks and months,” Vaughan said.