SweetSense Inc holds a complete NSF SBIR sequence in its own name: Phase I award 1621444 ($224,562, July 2016 to July 2017) and Phase II award 1738321 ($1,313,725, September 2017 to October 2021), both titled Predictive Algorithms for Water Point Failure. UEI M9YULLTP4PH8.
That sequence carries SBIR Phase III authority under 15 U.S.C. 638(r). Any federal agency, including any DoD component, may award a sole-source contract for technology derived from that work, with no dollar ceiling, no time limit, and no justification and approval document. The competition NSF ran in 2016 and 2017 satisfies the competition requirement permanently.
This is the center of the strategy. Every other activity exists to create a sponsor who wants to use that authority.
AFRL is formally testing Lume and has purchased one unit at $5,000, bought through a support contractor rather than directly. A CRADA with AFRL is pending. Virridy demonstrated at FY26 WaterPalooza, hosted by DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center and the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, 15 to 17 September 2026.
The Army has no acquisition program of record for field water quality monitoring. The fielded capability is the Water Quality Analysis Set-Preventive Medicine, a colorimeter kit that performs presence/absence testing, held only by preventive medicine units. Standards come from TB MED 577. Bulk water equipment sits with Product Manager Petroleum and Water Systems, whose FY26 procurement line is $96M.
Present Lume as sustainment equipment for expeditionary water assurance, never as preventive medicine or force health protection. A medical framing routes the product into Class VIII medical materiel, which brings medical materiel approval, FDA review and the ECAT catalog process. It also triggers an explicit exclusion in the Army xTech competition rules for technologies falling within the Army medical research portfolio.
The Air Force STTR in the company's history belongs to Urban Sky as prime with CU as the research institution. It creates no rights for Virridy and should not appear in any document a contracting officer reads.
| When | Action |
|---|---|
| This week | Ask AFRL to make the next purchase direct, citing UEI M9YULLTP4PH8 |
| This week | Send the Phase III lineage memo to the AFRL technical point of contact |
| This week | Ask DEVCOM GVSC about a CRADA or test service agreement with its Fuel and Water Equipment Branch |
| 28 to 29 September | G-TEAD ASCC synchronization forum, virtual, open to industry, previews Pacific capability events |
| 19 October | xTech Search 10 white paper, three pages, if pursued for visibility |
| Rolling | ERDC broad agency announcement W912HZ26S0001, five-page pre-proposal, response within 60 days |
WaterPalooza, DEVCOM GVSC: Mark Bagwell, Dr. Ben Thomas, Ramsey Slim, Kim Wegner. 25th Infantry Division: MAJ Mark Sopkiw, 1LT Trent Ferguson.
ERDC topics: Mark Ginsberg (integrated water security for DoD installations), Dr. Jared Cobb (environmental sensors). Army xTech: usarmy.xtech@army.mil. APFIT: osd.apfit@mail.mil.
DIU has no water portfolio and competes only problems a defense customer submits, so it becomes useful when a sponsor writes the problem statement. Army PIT operates through xTech, SBIR, ManTech and the G-TEAD accelerated capability events, and its published investment threads do not include water.