Nooks is getting a major boost to expand classified infrastructure for defense technology companies. The company has been awarded a four-year Defense Innovation Unit contract with a $146.8 million ceiling under DIU’s Bridge Program. The effort is designed to address a familiar challenge for smaller and nontraditional defense companies: winning government work does not necessarily mean they already have the cleared personnel, accredited facilities and secure networks needed to actually perform classified work.
Under the contract, Nooks will add classified facilities in Austin, Boston, Chicago, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area and Honolulu, joining existing locations in Arlington, Colorado Springs, El Segundo and Huntsville. The award also funds Facility Security Officer services for up to 100 selected DIU portfolio companies, including assistance with facility and personnel clearances, DCSA compliance and other industrial security requirements. Federal award data reported separately lists an initial obligation of about $20.1 million, meaning the $146.8 million figure represents the contract ceiling rather than guaranteed spending.
For the cleared workforce, the interesting piece is the model itself. Rather than requiring every emerging defense company to build its own classified facility and security operation, DIU is testing shared infrastructure that companies can access as they move into classified government work. If that approach expands, it could make it easier for defense startups and other commercial technology companies to enter classified programs without first making the substantial investment required to establish their own secure infrastructure.
Contract Opportunities: PlanetiQ
PlanetiQ has been selected as one of the industry partners for NOAA’s new Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) contract, giving the Colorado-based satellite company the opportunity to compete for future task orders supporting weather forecasting and space weather monitoring. The new IDIQ runs from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2036, with a five-year base period and five-year option. NOAA initially selected 14 industry partners across seven categories of commercial satellite data.
For PlanetiQ, the work could include providing Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation data for atmospheric and ionospheric monitoring, along with thermospheric neutral density measurements that can improve satellite orbit prediction. The selection builds on existing NOAA work: PlanetiQ received a $2.73 million delivery order in August to provide 4,200 GNSS-RO profiles and 500 Total Electron Content tracks each day through December 1. The broader SBEM vehicle also gives NOAA flexibility to add vendors and new types of commercial environmental data as its requirements evolve.
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Cleared Opportunities
The Pentagon is moving toward a more commercial approach to contractor accounting, with a new implementation plan aimed at reducing some of the government-specific requirements that have long accompanied defense contracts. A September 14 memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg directs the department to shift away from broad use of Cost Accounting Standards, or CAS, and rely more heavily on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, commonly used by commercial businesses. The department also plans to push for CAS exemptions to become the default, with the specialized standards focused more narrowly on work where additional cost oversight is necessary.
The changes go beyond accounting standards. Defense officials are being directed to simplify contractor business-system reviews, make audits more risk-based and avoid asking companies to create special accounting systems or data formats when information they already maintain can meet the government’s needs. The plan also calls for a process to make commercial product and service determinations within 15 business days of receiving a complete request, as well as a review of the department’s profit policy. Some of this shift is already underway: the Cost Accounting Standards Board recently finalized changes that further align CAS with GAAP, including eliminating most of CAS 407 because commercial accounting rules now provide substantially overlapping requirements.
For contractors, particularly commercial and nontraditional companies considering defense work, the direction could eventually lower some of the administrative barriers associated with entering the federal market. But this is not an immediate elimination of government accounting requirements. Existing DFARS rules still require accounting systems for contractors performing certain cost-reimbursement, incentive, time-and-materials and other contracts, and several pieces of the new approach will require additional rulemaking and implementation before contractors see the full impact.
