NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The NAVAIR Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Programs (SBIR/SBTT) group Wednesday finished up NAVAIR panel presentations at this year’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2026 at the National Harbor, Maryland.
Focusing on “NAVAIR Acquisition On‑Ramp: Small Business and Tech Transition Pathways,” the panel was led by Irma Alvarez-Alexander, deputy director of the NAVAIR Headquarters Office of Small Business Programs. Alvarez-Alexander was joined by Richard Tarr with the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Technology Transfer Office and Colin Wilkinson, NAVAIR’s Small Business Innovation Research technical lead. The panel discussed how NAVAIR is working with small businesses to drive innovation, strengthen its industrial base and deliver new capabilities to the fleet.
Alvarez-Alexander gave an overview of the many cradle-to-grave support programs that NAVAIR is involved in from fixed-wing, rotary-wing, unmanned air systems and weapons, and said those looking to join NAVAIR in supporting these programs should look at places like sam.gov, a government-run website where government entities solicit and receive contract proposals for numerous programs. She said industry should pay attention to national military strategies and visions, and suggested industry attend more events for networking, such as Sea-Air-Space.
Tarr gave an overview of NAWCAD’s role, being the main hub for the Navy’s aviation research, development, test and evaluation infrastructure and enterprise.
“My role as the tech transfer office is to both spin in and spin out technology,” Tarr said. “The more traditional role is, we have a patent portfolio that’s available for licensing by industry, and we are actively pursuing commercialization of those Navy-owned patents, but then also spinning in technology. I’m looking at non-traditional and dual use technologies that can be spun in and have relevance to the warfighter.
“The focus of our office is to engage with a broader ecosystem, so we’re looking both to expand that to bring in companies that haven’t worked with NAVAIR or NAWCAD in the past, as well as engage in cooperative activities.”
Tarr said those engagements can range from partnerships with a research firm or with universities or grade-school STEM programs.
“We’re looking for industry partners to leverage our labs and facilities,” he said. “We have unique labs and facilities available for industry to leverage. We’d rather that you leverage those unique, bespoke facilities then either try to recreate them or find other places to do risk reduction.”
Wilkinson said businesses that have fewer than 500 employees and are based in the U.S. qualify to apply for the SBIR program. Alvarez-Alexander pointed to a recently created Department of War program called LYNX, a digital platform designed to strengthen supplier readiness, improve visibility into business capabilities and expand participation across the defense industrial base. Businesses seeking more information can go to https://www.lynxconnect.io.
“What [LNYX] is actually doing is it’s taking your technical capability and turning it into a credibility by giving you a capability statement that is going to be written to win, that takes your information and kind of creates a dashboard for you, so it’ll pull opportunities in the ecosystem,” she said. “It will pull in more information and let you know where your weaknesses are and what you need to address.”
Wilkinson elaborated on what he said were target areas the team was looking into and seeking partnerships and solutions.
“Obviously for the Navy, for naval aviation, we want to focus on those things that are Navy unique—sea-based aviation and all the issues associated with that, from launch and recovery, corrosion or anything to do with autonomy regarding getting aircraft on and off ships,” Wilkinson said. “The Pacific theater is our driving challenge right now, so there’s a number of challenges that we face that we do need solutions.”
Businesses interested in partnering with the SBIR/STTR program should be researched and ready when approaching the team.
“Before you come and want to talk to [our team], we highly encourage you to do your homework to make sure your message is on point, it’s related to the requirement, you understand the customer, so when that first handshake comes along, it’s not a cold handshake,” Alvarez-Alexander said. “It’s a very comfortable fireside chat on exactly how you can bring your products and services to our ecosystem and make a difference so that we can pair up together and support the warfighter to win tonight, tomorrow and in the future.”