Krause Airco, Inc.

Krause Airco, Inc., a Santa Paula, California-based manufacturer of aircraft windshield wiper systems and components, supplies windshield wiper blades, arms, refills, and related aviation maintenance parts to the Defense Department as a prime contractor, competing predominantly in full-and-open procurements with occasional total small business set-aside orders.

Krause Airco is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation with no SBA designations. The company operates exclusively as a prime contractor—all 305 recent awards in the source are prime contracts or indefinite delivery vehicles, with no subcontracting footprint. Work is performed at the vendor's Santa Paula facility. The capability portfolio centers narrowly on aircraft windshield wiper components: blades, arms, refills, and blade inserts manufactured to federal specifications and primarily for military and Coast Guard rotorcraft. Representative work includes a $106,452.50 delivery order from Defense Logistics Agency Aviation for windshield wiper blades (awarded July 2023), a $74,602 total small business set-aside delivery order from DLA Aviation for windshield blades (February 2023), and a $38,941.95 firm fixed-price purchase order from the United States Coast Guard for MH-60T helicopter windshield wiper arms and blades with option quantities (awarded May 2025, modified January 2026).

Customer concentration is extreme and highly consolidated. Defense Logistics Agency Aviation accounts for 194 of the vendor's 305 recent awards—64% of total award count—and $4.5 million of the combined $6 million potential value (75%), with the broader Defense Logistics Agency entity adding 32 awards and $250 thousand. The Department of Homeland Security US Coast Guard (10 awards, $113 thousand), Department of the Air Force (17 awards, no dollar total in source), and Department of the Army (12 awards) comprise the remainder of the 87% coverage set. This concentration around DLA Aviation alone makes Krause Airco's customer base exceptionally narrow for a federal contractor.

The vendor holds position on five named indefinite delivery contracts with DLA Aviation: SPE4A720D0053 (21 task orders, $304 thousand combined potential value), SPE4A719D5059 (17 task orders, $171 thousand), SPE4A717D5127 (14 task orders, $138 thousand), SPE4A714D5226 (11 task orders, $136 thousand), and SPM46004D0792 (11 task orders, $72 thousand). Two additional single-award IDCs are documented: one Total Small Business set-aside IDC with a $249,999.99 ceiling awarded November 2022 with ultimate completion October 2023, and a no-set-aside IDC with a $250,000 ceiling awarded August 2022 extending through August 2027 for windshield wiper blade refills.

Activity has declined sharply. The vendor received 15 awards in 2022, 22 in 2023, but only 7 in 2024, 4 in 2025, and 2 in the first half of 2026. Only two awards (combined potential value $49 thousand) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating minimal recompete exposure in that window but signaling a material contraction in recent order velocity. Combined obligated dollars across all awards total $5 million against a combined potential value of $6 million, indicating 82% of the ceiling has been drawn. The vendor has been registered in SAM since 2001, establishing a long-standing supplier relationship with DLA Aviation that anchors the federal footprint.

Aircraft Windshield Wiper Systems