Craft Manufacturing And Tooling Inc.

Craft Manufacturing And Tooling Inc., doing business as CMT, is a small business precision aerospace component manufacturer based in Hot Springs, Arkansas, that supplies aircraft structural parts and assemblies to the Department of Defense as a prime contractor (97% of awards) and subcontractor. CMT is a for-profit manufacturer competing predominantly in full-and-open procurements with the Defense Logistics Agency, though the company holds four active small business set-aside indefinite delivery contracts with DLA Aviation and DLA Land and Maritime.

CMT's customer concentration is extreme and singular: DLA Aviation accounts for 1,034 of 1,181 total prime awards (88% of the award count) and $15.2 million of the $16.6 million combined potential value across the vendor's entire federal footprint. The next-largest customer, the Department of the Army Materiel Command Joint Munitions Command, represents only three awards worth $662 thousand. Within DLA Aviation's buying, CMT manufactures discrete aircraft structural components — brackets, stiffeners, plates, ribs, fairings, access covers, aircraft skins, intercostals, longerons, and stowage assemblies — issued as purchase orders and delivery orders against CMT's active IDCs. Representative prime work includes a $34.06 thousand DLA Aviation purchase order (August 2024) for structural support, a $25.79 thousand total small business set-aside purchase order (March 2025) for structural support, and a $20.03 thousand total small business set-aside purchase order (August 2021) for aircraft canopy frames. CMT also holds four single-award indefinite delivery contracts with DLA — three for aircraft stiffeners and one for mounting brackets, all designated total small business set-asides, collectively valued at $1 million through 2030. These IDCs enable DLA to procure components on an as-needed basis with delivery timelines of 86 to 158 days to both continental and overseas distribution points.

Activity has grown modestly: 29 awards in 2022, 21 in 2023, 42 in 2024, and 44 in 2025, with only one award recorded in 2026 through mid-March. However, recompete exposure is minimal — only 12 awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry a combined potential value of $69 thousand, and the largest single award in the upcoming window is a $28.2 thousand total small business set-aside purchase order completing in March 2023 (already passed from the perspective of the current date). CMT's recent sub footprint is dominated by Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, which awarded CMT dozens of sub tasks beginning in late 2023 for metal stamping, machining, and sheet metal work on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, France E-2D spares, and E-2D aerial refueling retrofit kits. CMT also subcontracted to Lockheed Martin Corporation on two occasions in 2023 and 2024 for conduit wiring harness work on GMLRS and LCRRPR full-rate production. The sub work reflects CMT's capability in precision metalworking — stamping, machining, and detailed fabrication — beyond its primary DLA prime role.

CMT's award portfolio concentrates narrowly in airframe structural components (1,127 awards under PSC code for that category) and other aircraft parts and auxiliary equipment manufacturing (920 awards under NAICS). The vendor has supplied DLA Aviation continuously since at least 2001 with a steady cadence of small discrete orders; the median purchase order or delivery order sits in the $3,500 to $9,000 range, with occasional larger vehicles such as the $44.7 thousand structural plate purchase order of March 2024. CMT's status as a small business manufacturer and the preponderance of total small business set-aside vehicle holdings position it as a go-to supplier for DLA's routine, rapid-turnaround needs for aircraft structural spare parts and components essential to fleet readiness and maintenance.

CNC machining, routing, and turning; CNC water jet cutting; Painting; Part or Tool digitizing; Digitizing mylars; CNC punching; Heat age; Brake forming; Heat treat; Hydro forming; Tooling; Titanium hot forming; MasterCam programming; Hot Joggle; Assembly