Air-Lock, Incorporated

Air-Lock, Incorporated, a small business aerospace hardware manufacturer based in Milford, Connecticut, operates as a prime contractor (99% of awards) supplying high-precision spacesuit components and quick-disconnect couplings to NASA and the Defense Logistics Agency. Air-Lock is a subsidiary of David Clark Company Incorporated, a specialized manufacturer of communication equipment and life support systems for federal aerospace and defense applications.

Air-Lock competes predominantly on full-and-open vehicles rather than set-asides, though its DLA Land and Maritime portfolio includes multiple small-business-set-aside IDCs. Recent representative work includes a $14 million single-award IDIQ awarded by NASA's Shared Services Center on April 1, 2026, for procurement of space suit connectors and hardware supporting the Artemis lunar exploration program through February 2031, with three delivery orders already issued totaling $821,746 for Orion Crew Survival Systems (OCSS) suit ancillary hardware and refurbishment work. Air-Lock also holds a $250,000 single-award DLA Land and Maritime IDC (awarded March 11, 2025, completing March 10, 2026) for quick-disconnect coupling halves; three delivery orders under this vehicle total $12,696 for component procurement supporting Department of Defense logistics. On the NASA Johnson Space Center STTR Phase III vehicle, Air-Lock carries a $15.4 million umbrella IDC and has delivered task orders for training hardware ($1.27 million, completion May 23, 2026), XEMU bearing assemblies and spacesuit components ($860,562), and OCSS suit connectors ($860,400). The vendor also supplies DLA Troop Support Construction and Equipment with pneumatic valves and cartridge inflators on small-business-set-aside purchase orders, with recent awards ranging from $5,000 to $193,806.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward civilian space exploration. The top five customer agencies by combined potential value account for 97% of all awards: NASA Johnson Space Center dominates with 43 awards valued at $35.1 million, followed by NASA Shared Services Center with 15 awards at $16.8 million. The DLA's three divisions—Land and Maritime (158 awards, $3 million), Troop Support Construction and Equipment (71 awards, $2.4 million), and Aviation (35 awards, $466 thousand)—collectively drive high transaction volume but lower dollar magnitude, reflecting the transactional nature of spare-parts procurement. By transaction count, DLA Land and Maritime represents 73% of awards but only 3% of combined potential value, signaling a highly fragmented customer with many small orders rather than strategic prime vehicles.

Air-Lock's capability footprint centers on fabricated pipe and pipe fittings (156 awards), hardware manufacturing (80 awards), and aircraft manufacturing (16 awards), with PSC concentration in hose, pipe, and tube fittings (194 awards) and marine lifesaving and diving equipment (67 awards). The vendor manufactures quick-disconnect couplings (coupling halves, caps, wyes), pneumatic valves, bearing assemblies, connectors (bayonet and umbilical), inflator cartridges, tubing assemblies, and webbing straps—all components serving either military logistics or human spaceflight missions.

Activity trajectory has been flat to modest growth over the past five years: 13 awards in 2022, 14 in 2023, 14 in 2024, 16 in 2025, and 5 to date in 2026. The recompete cliff is minimal: only four awards carrying $840 thousand in combined potential value complete within the next twenty-four months, indicating stable incumbent positions on renewal vehicles and low near-term recompete exposure.

Air-Lock subcontracts under Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International on Extravehicular Space Operations Contract (ESOC) valve and connector work (February 2024, May 2025, July 2025), providing specialized aerospace components to a major defense prime. The vendor's parent company, David Clark Company, is itself a federal prime contractor and may co-perform or coordinate on select awards, though the subsidiary structure allows Air-Lock to maintain its small-business standing.

Air-Lock's five-year total contract value stands at $59.5 million potential value with $34.2 million obligated to date (57% realization). The vendor's primary exposure to recompete risk lies in the NASA STTR Phase III umbrella—a long-standing, high-value vehicle—and the DLA Land and Maritime single-award IDC renewing in early 2026; both are incumbent positions likely to refresh rather than open to new competition.