Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[GTman1]

• manufacture specialty chemicals and materials that are needed by the DoD in an
available and affordable manner (e.g., biomanufactured fuels and energetic precursors,
biosynthetic fibers such as but not limited to spider silk, polymers, natural rubber/latex
rubber, solvents)

This is really compelling. The RFI didn't really call out many specific products, especially for how large and generalized this RFI is (and how many $billions have already been ear marked for it).

So the fact that it specifically calls out spider silk as a product of interest is incredible. Even if there were competitors (there really aren't, especially in the U.S.), then it would seem prudent for the DOD to fund ALL spider silk initiatives and see which one bears fruit.

I think Rayo was correct in saying Kraig Labs is a shoe-in for funding. It would be highly unlikely for the DOD not to fund the only American company creating spider silk fibers, when that is exactly what they called for in the RFI.

Kraig Labs current situation is very different than when they received the Army funding. KBLB hadn't received the business license to enter Vietnam so there were no means of mass production. KBLB had to produce whatever spider silk fiber they could in a campus sponsored laboratory in Indiana. I think we all know now the space needed to raise silkworms at a large scale, and the Indiana lab was not the answer. That's not even mentioning that they needed to find a weaver for the shootpack panels that likely had never worked with a fiber with the specs of MS and DS.

It's not guaranteed that they'll win any funding, but it's pretty damn close.