The 250-Person Firm Behind the Navy's Mine Wars
Physical Sciences Inc. builds the batteries, sensors, and optics that major defense primes can't—or won't—make themselves.
By The Defense Desk
Last summer, an underwater drone powered by a highly specialized lithium-ion battery searched Narragansett Bay for targets mimicking sea mines like those recently deployed by Iran. [1] The battery wasn't bought off the shelf. It was built by Physical Sciences Inc., an employee-owned small business with 250 employee-owners in Andover, Massachusetts. [1]
PSI's cells also power the Navy's Barracuda Mine Neutralization System, and its spectroscopic gamma detection systems make up part of the nation's nuclear trip wire—scanning ports, border crossings, and high-profile events like the Super Bowl for smuggled radioactive material. [1] The detectors can reject false alarms from naturally occurring radioactive material while identifying concealed threats. [1]
Those technologies took up to a decade of prototyping and testing before reaching production—timelines much longer than what is acceptable to venture capital firms. [1] PSI's employee-ownership model lets the company serve as its own investor, with an investment horizon marked by the careers of its employees rather than the next round of venture capital funding. [1] The SBIR program allows PSI to go from concept to prototype to production, reducing risk at the early stages of development. [1]
PSI is now scaling fast. A $30 million, 67,000-square-foot battery facility—acquired from a startup that moved production overseas—will expand output a hundred-fold to support Barracuda and a new generation of anti-submarine mines. [1] PSI is also a key subcontractor on the Hammerhead Encapsulated Effector system, led by General Dynamics Mission Systems, whose total potential value exceeds $275.6 million. [2] Alongside that, PSI is investing $9 million in domestic propellant production and $6 million in infrared optical components to cut dependence on Germanium supply chains. [1]
The firms that keep a military running rarely appear on the program office's letterhead. They exist in the gaps between platforms—small enough to be agile, specialized enough to be indispensable.
The Pentagon recently called the SBIR program 'a cornerstone of defense innovation' and declared it is now focused more than ever on 'prioritizing the fielding of critical capabilities at scale.' [1] For PSI, that's not a policy statement—it's a production schedule.