Donaldson Company, Inc.

Donaldson Company, Inc., a global filtration systems and aircraft components manufacturer headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri, operates primarily as a prime contractor (82% of recent awards) supplying Defense Logistics Agency Aviation with filter elements, auxiliary filter systems, wiring harnesses, mounting brackets, liquid level indicators, and related aerospace components on a full-and-open competitive basis with no set-aside designations.

The vendor is a for-profit manufacturer of goods and does not hold SBA certifications; it competes as a large, established supplier across the full federal competitive landscape. Recent activity demonstrates strong momentum: awards grew from twelve in 2022 to thirty-eight in 2024, though 2025 and early 2026 show moderation at twenty-five and four awards respectively. Combined potential value across all federal awards totals $40.4 million, though obligated dollars reach $60 million — reflecting prior-year drawdowns against existing indefinite delivery contracts. The vendor serves eleven distinct customer agencies.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward DLA Aviation, which accounts for seventy-three awards ($10.5 million combined potential value) and dominates the award-count ranking at 93% coverage of the top five customers. However, the recompete-risk picture is distinct: a single Special Operations Command award carries $26.5 million potential value — the largest single dollar commitment in the portfolio — and sits atop the potential-value ranking. DLA Land and Maritime follows with twenty-eight awards ($689 thousand), the Department of the Navy Naval Supply Systems Command with eighteen awards ($524 thousand), and Naval Air Systems Command with thirteen awards. Together, these four customers represent 93% of award count. The concentration by dollars is therefore extreme: SOCOM's one award represents 66% of combined potential value across all 153 awards.

Donaldson holds three active single-award indefinite delivery contracts: a $429 thousand DLA Aviation IDC for filter elements, indicators, wiring harnesses, and switches (ultimate completion August 2023, now expired or near expiration based on award dates); a $250 thousand DLA Land and Maritime IDC for mounting brackets through January 2025; and another $250 thousand DLA Land and Maritime IDC through January 2025. Additional parent vehicles include multiple Basic Ordering Agreements with the Department of the Navy (N0038320GX901 with nine task orders, N0001919G0029 with three task orders) and Navy IDCs for aircraft parts and services. Donaldson places orders across these vehicles by receiving firm fixed-price purchase orders and delivery orders from DLA and Navy purchasing offices, typically in the range of $1,600 to $770 thousand per order.

Donaldson's capability portfolio is concrete and aircraft-focused: engine air intake filters and oil filters, liquid level indicators, filter elements for helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft, mounting brackets, wiring harnesses, gaskets, seals, electro-mechanical actuators, aircraft ducting, wire rope assemblies, and aircraft skin components. Representative prime work includes a $772 thousand definitive contract with DLA Aviation for new manufacture of Black Hawk helicopter filter elements (awarded April 2024, completion February 2025), a $770.3 thousand purchase order for electro-mechanical actuators (July 2025, completion June 2027), a $731.5 thousand award for auxiliary filter systems (January 2022, completion December 2022), and a $543.6 thousand purchase order for filter elements (August 2025, completion December 2026). All three major DLA awards carry firm fixed-price terms and no set-aside status, reflecting Donaldson's position as an unrestricted competitive supplier.

As a subcontractor, Donaldson supplies aircraft parts and services to major defense primes, particularly Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (twenty plus recent sub awards dating to January 2024, including actuator assemblies, particle separators, and CH-53K long-lead items), Lockheed Martin Corporation (aircraft parts and service modifications, May 2024 and later), Bell Textron Inc. (filter assemblies for Bell 505 aircraft in Iraq and Future Vertical Lift development, March 2025), and Bell Boeing Joint Project Office (V-22 indicators under performance-based logistics, July 2024 and December 2024). Sikorsky represents the dominant sub-prime relationship by frequency and recency, with multiple 2025 awards for actuators and subassemblies on Marine Corps helicopter programs.

The vendor's parent company is Donaldson Company, Inc., a global filtration manufacturer (parent UEI: UES5F4AAZJK5, headquartered Minneapolis, Minnesota, doing business as Donaldson Filtration Solutions). The child entity in Chesterfield, Missouri (UEI: SVKLZQT22LV3) performs production at a Wildwood, Missouri facility and is the contracting recipient for most DLA awards; both carry the same legal name but distinct UEIs and headquarters addresses. Capability framing from the source emphasizes the vendor's specialization in "engine and industrial filtration solutions" and aircraft components for "defense and aerospace sectors," grounded in twenty-plus years of consistent DLA and Navy supply relationships.

Donaldson faces a recompete cliff of $2.5 million in combined potential value across six awards with ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months, most notably the $26.5 million Special Operations Command award if its completion date falls in that window. The vendor's core business is transactional and repetitive — small-to-medium purchase orders and delivery orders against standing DLA IDCs — rather than large program integrations, positioning it as a critical but narrowly focused supplier to defense logistics rather than as a platform prime.