BigBear.ai (BBAI) landed a strategic partnership last week that could expand its presence in the defense and homeland security markets. The company announced an integration deal with C Speed, a radar technology specialist backed by NewSpring Holdings.
This deal combines BigBear’s ConductorOS AI platform with C Speed’s LightWave Radar system to create autonomous threat detection capabilities for military and border security applications. The partnership enables real-time AI-driven threat detection at the sensor level and addresses a critical national security requirement.
C Speed’s radars are already deployed across multiple Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense missions, which provides BigBear with access to established government customers. The integrated solution should accelerate threat response times through AI-powered sensor fusion and autonomous mode switching between airborne, ground, and maritime threats.
The partnership represents a strategic shift toward embedding AI capabilities directly into defense hardware rather than offering standalone software solutions, which creates stickier customer relationships and recurring revenue streams in the high-margin government contracting space.
In Q3 of 2025, BigBear.ai reported revenue of $33.1 million, down from $41.5 million in the year-ago period. The top-line decline was tied to lower volume on Army programs. Moreover, gross margins narrowed from 25.9% to 22.4% over the last 12 months as certain higher-margin contracts from the previous year did not repeat.
The company posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $9.4 million, compared with a profit of $900,000 in the year-ago quarter. This deterioration stemmed from increased selling, general, and administrative expenses, which rose to $25.3 million from $17.5 million.
Management attributed the spending increase to $4.3 million in additional labor costs to support growth initiatives, $2 million in nonrecurring strategic expenses, and $1.4 million in marketing investments.
Despite operating losses, BigBear reported net income of $2.5 million for the quarter, driven by a $26 million gain from remeasuring the convertible features of its outstanding notes. This accounting adjustment masks underlying operational challenges and should not be viewed as indicative of business performance.
