Butler Parachute Systems, Inc.

Butler Parachute Systems, Inc., a minority-owned, Hispanic American-owned manufacturer based in Roanoke, Virginia, designs, manufactures, and delivers parachute systems and aerial delivery equipment to the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Coast Guard as a prime contractor on 269 federal awards (99.6% of recent activity). The company competes predominantly full-and-open on unrestricted procurements, though a subset of its vehicle-based and IDIQ work carries Total Small Business set-aside designations; it does not pursue 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB set-asides as a posture.

Butler Parachute Systems' customer base is heavily weighted toward Army sustainment and logistics commands. The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation leads by award count with 54 orders valued at $12.6 million combined potential value, reflecting steady replenishment of personnel harnesses, wiring harnesses, parachute components, and oxygen kits. The Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) accounts for 37 awards worth $8.1 million, channeled through a $5 million single-award IDC for parachute systems and individual parts valid through May 13, 2029. Army Contracting Command Detroit Arsenal anchors the portfolio's dollar value: a $276.9 million five-year G-16 cargo parachute IDIQ awarded April 23, 2025, and a $90.7 million G-15 cargo parachute IDIQ awarded March 14, 2025, together representing 63% of the vendor's combined potential value. The Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center holds $104.1 million across 8 awards for B-52 back-automatic parachutes, low-profile parachute assemblies, and related life-safety equipment. The vendor also serves the Coast Guard, NASA Shared Services Center, Air Mobility Command, Air Combat Command, and the Pacific Air Forces; across all customers, DLA Aviation, RDECOM, and the two Army cargo-parachute IDIQs account for 91% of potential value.

Butler Parachute Systems' product portfolio centers on personnel parachutes (including BA-30 low-profile variants), cargo parachutes (G-16, G-15, 15-foot extraction variants), parachute harnesses, training systems, automatic activation devices (CYPRES brand), oxygen kits, wiring harnesses for aircraft, and deployment bags. Representative work includes an $8.85 million April 2025 delivery order for G-16 cargo parachutes to Air Mobility Command Warren, a $6.5 million February 2025 definitive contract with the Air Force for BA-30 and BA-52 back-automatic parachutes for B-52 fleet retrofit, a $5.54 million March 2025 delivery order for G-15 parachutes to Army TACOM, and $2.77 million April 2025 delivery order for 15-foot extraction parachutes to Air Combat Command Warren under the company's newly awarded $18.5 million 15-foot cargo parachute IDIQ. The vendor also holds a GSA Multiple Award Schedule position with 37 task orders worth $20 million, enabling task orders from Air Force Global Strike Command, Air National Guard, and other agencies for specialized life-safety and aerial delivery equipment.

Activity has accelerated in recent years — 12 awards in 2022 to 36 in 2024 — driven by new large IDIQs and sustained DLA Aviation replenishment orders. Fifteen awards with completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $26.2 million, surfacing near-term recompete exposure on smaller DLA and RDECOM task orders. The vendor's single subcontract award, recorded in March 2026, is performance as a sub to Peraton on NASA Balloon Facility operations and management support. Butler Parachute Systems Group, Inc. (the parent) appears to hold no independent federal awards; all federal work flows through the named subsidiary, Butler Parachute Systems, Inc. The contractor has maintained SAM.gov registration since February 2002 and competes across full-and-open and small business set-aside vehicles without consistent reliance on set-aside posture; its footprint is characterized by high-volume transactional work (DLA, RDECOM small orders) anchored by a handful of large, multi-year IDIQ vehicles with the Army.