Orbital Parts Inc.

Orbital Parts Inc., a Mansfield, Texas-based for-profit Subchapter S corporation, supplies precision fasteners, mechanical assemblies, and aircraft components to the Defense Logistics Agency exclusively as a prime contractor through firm fixed-price purchase orders, with no set-aside designations and no subcontract footprint across a 1,743-award portfolio spanning three decades. The vendor operates in full-and-open competition and holds no SBA certifications or socioeconomic set-aside designations.

The customer concentration is extreme and single-threaded. Defense Logistics Agency Aviation accounts for 908 awards (52% of the total portfolio) and $4.9 million in combined potential value (72% of the total). DLA Land and Maritime adds 323 awards with $819 thousand in potential value, and DLA Troop Support Hardware contributes 243 awards with $381 thousand. Together, these three DLA subdivisions represent 1,474 awards and cover 94% of the award count; by potential value, the concentration is even tighter at 97%. The Department of the Air Force Materiel Command Air Force Sustainment Center, with 112 awards worth $345 thousand, rounds out the top five but remains a distant fourth. No civilian agency has placed more than a handful of orders.

Orbital Parts' capability portfolio is narrowly specialized around standardized aerospace fasteners and mechanical assemblies. The top NAICS categories reflect this focus: Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing (411 awards), Bolt, Nut, Screw, Rivet, and Washer Manufacturing (281 awards), and Hardware Manufacturing (209 awards). The top PSC codes reinforce the pattern — Airframe Structural Components (265 awards), Nuts and Washers (134 awards), Screws (103 awards), and Hardware Commercial (91 awards). Representative awards from the recent sample include a $21,456 disk valve purchase order (DLA Aviation, December 2024), a $16,500 pump scavenge shroud (DLA Aviation, April 2025), an $91,896 parts kit actuator for 42 units of aircraft engine accessories (DLA Aviation, June 2026), and a $12,579.20 pressure bellows delivery (DLA Aviation, September 2025). The vast majority of individual orders carry values between $190 and $12,000, with occasional outliers above $20,000 — a high-frequency, low-to-mid-dollar purchase order footprint characteristic of DLA's routine inventory procurement and aircraft maintenance supply chain.

Activity has grown modestly year over year, from 91 awards in 2022 to 121 in 2025, though 2026 data are truncated (51 awards through mid-July). The combined potential value across all awards stands at $6.8 million, though obligated dollars total $9.4 million, indicating earlier awards have carried higher realized spend than current purchase-order ceiling values suggest. The vendor has maintained active SAM.gov registration since June 2001 — over two decades of continuous federal contracting — and operates exclusively as a prime contractor with no recorded subcontract relationships or sub-award activity.

The business model is straightforward: Orbital Parts manufactures or sources standardized aerospace and defense components from its Mansfield location and fulfills small, discrete purchase orders from DLA's distribution depots and field activities on a firm fixed-price basis. The single-customer concentration, narrow capability footprint, and reliance on routine commodity procurement make the vendor dependent on DLA's Aviation division for operational cash flow but insulate it from competitive pressure across broader federal markets. Recompete risk is distributed across hundreds of small individual purchase orders with staggered completion dates rather than concentrated in a handful of large contract vehicles.