Albany Engineered Composites (AEC), a segment of Albany International Corp., has secured a $21.2 million contract over a 30-month period of performance to build scalable carbon-carbon composite thermal protection systems (TPS) for hypersonic vehicles and solid rocket motors (SRMs).

The award runs through the U.S. government's Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program for Strengthening America's Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base (SAMDIB). The U.S. Army Contracting Command – Rock Island and the Cornerstone Other Transaction Authority (OTA) issued it. The company announced the contract on September 29, 2026, from its Rochester, N.H. headquarters.

The program's core deliverable is capacity, not components. Albany plans to establish a vertically integrated production facility for carbon-carbon composite manufacturing, creating domestic industrial base capacity for cost-effective TPS production at scale. Work packages include engineering studies, facility planning, supplier selection, procurement and installation of key manufacturing equipment, and infrastructure development to support TPS production.

AEC Advanced Programs, Inc., the business unit receiving the award, will draw on Albany's existing process toolkit: 3D-woven, near-net-shape preforms, Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), and carbon-carbon densification capabilities. For textile-sector suppliers, the preforming work sits firmly in the technical weaving tier — the same 3D weaving and near-net-shape disciplines Albany supplies to commercial aerospace structures.

"Hypersonic systems and solid rocket motors place extraordinary demands on the material systems used and the manufacturing processes required to produce them," said Chris Stone, president of Albany Engineered Composites. "This award brings together Albany's advanced composite expertise and production-focused capabilities to address an important challenge for the U.S. defense industrial base: establishing the manufacturing capacity required to support next-generation hypersonic and solid rocket motor systems at scale."

Brent Stevenson, vice president of emerging markets & technology at AEC, framed the award around production readiness. "Production readiness is a critical element of both hypersonic and solid rocket motor missions," he said. "Albany's proven experience in 3D-woven near-net-shape composite preforms and RTM provides a strong foundation for advancing scalable manufacturing solutions for these critical missions."

The commercial logic behind the award is straightforward. Hypersonic vehicles and SRMs impose extreme thermal environments, and their protection systems must now meet cost and volume targets alongside performance ones. The IBAS funding model targets exactly that gap: converting proven materials technology into repeatable, scalable domestic manufacturing rather than one-off development work.

For Albany, the contract extends a defense positioning strategy built on extreme-environment composites. The program combines advanced materials development with manufacturing infrastructure and production engineering, expanding the company's capability set beyond its established aerospace structures business.

The supplier question will shape execution. The scope explicitly includes supplier selection for the new facility, which means qualification opportunities for carbon fiber inputs, weaving and preforming equipment, RTM tooling, and densification process equipment over the 30-month window. Firms already supplying Albany's 3D weaving operations are the natural first tier for this pipeline.

The sourcing decision this forces is two-fold. U.S. defense procurement, backed by IBAS money, is paying premium rates to onshore carbon-carbon TPS capacity — suppliers to the advanced composites chain should assess now whether to qualify for the facility build-out. And buyers of technical weaving capacity should note that defense demand for near-net-shape preforms is set to grow on federal funding, tightening capacity in a niche already dominated by a small supplier base.