R.e. Darling Co., Inc.

R.e. Darling Co., Inc., a for-profit small business manufacturer based in Tucson, Arizona, supplies precision rubber and composite components to the Defense Department as a prime contractor across 1,189 awards (100% of recent awards), with minimal subcontract exposure. The vendor competes predominantly full-and-open, though roughly 10% of recent awards carry Total Small Business set-aside designations; the company is not a certified 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB, or other SBA category participant and does not hold SBA certifications beyond its small business status.

R.e. Darling manufactures specialized hose and tubing assemblies, cable assemblies, seals, protective equipment, and connector components for military and aerospace applications. Representative prime work includes a $346,995 delivery order from Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Land and Maritime for oxygen generator hoses (March 2026), a $634,885 total small business set-aside purchase order from DLA Land and Maritime for 205 air breathing hoses (April 2025), a $251,557.74 delivery order from DLA Land and Maritime for oxygen generator hoses (May 2024), and a $358,684.02 delivery order from DLA Land and Maritime for oxygen generator hoses (November 2021). The vendor also holds a large-ceiling Indefinite Delivery Contract with DLA Land and Maritime valued at $8.38 million for oxygen generator hoses (awarded September 2022, through August 2027), under which nine delivery orders totaling approximately $2.2 million have been issued since award.

Customer concentration is extreme and single-agency dependent. DLA Land and Maritime alone represents 645 awards carrying $38 million in combined potential value—87% of recent awards by count and 81% of combined potential value by dollars. DLA Aviation (169 awards, $4.8 million) and unspecified DLA divisions (127 awards, $455 thousand) comprise the next tier. The top five funding entities account for 94% of combined potential value. The Navy and Air Force are tertiary customers with 61 and 36 awards respectively but carry minimal dollar share. This concentration exposes R.e. Darling to significant recompete risk and customer-concentration cliff: DLA Land and Maritime renewal cycles dominate the pipeline.

The vendor's parent vehicle footprint is predominantly single-award IDCs held directly with DLA divisions. Top vehicles include Indefinite Delivery Contract SP074000D7374 (23 task orders, unvalued in source), Indefinite Delivery Contract SPE7LX18D0012 (18 task orders, $2.9 million), and Indefinite Delivery Contract SPE7MX22D0076 (11 task orders, $2.6 million). All major vehicles are DLA-administered; the vendor does not hold position on government-wide acquisition contracts, GSA Schedules, or multi-agency IDIQs.

Activity has been stable but flat. Awards per year ranged from 29 to 36 across 2022–2025, with only 5 awards recorded in 2026 through March (reflecting the snapshot date of July 2026). Ten awards with combined potential value of $1.1 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing modest recompete exposure but reflecting the vendor's reliance on steady renewal of small-dollar DLA delivery orders rather than large, infrequent contract vehicles.

R.e. Darling subcontracts minimally: only 2 sub-awards appear in the source (0.2% of total awards). Named sub primes include The Boeing Company (F-15EX advanced procurement, June 2025) and BAE Systems Land & Armaments L.P. (MK 25 Mod 1 canisters, April 2024), but these represent rare exceptions. The vendor operates as a pure prime in its DLA relationship and does not function as a tier-two supplier to major defense primes in any systematic way.

The vendor was registered in the System for Award Management in 2001 and has held continuous federal contracting status for over two decades. Product-category concentration reinforces the narrow capability set: 691 awards fall under Hose and Flexible Tubing PSC, 221 under Aircraft Air Conditioning and Pressurizing Equipment, and 92 under Cable and Cord Assemblies. NAICS concentration mirrors this, with 531 awards in All Other Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing and 127 in Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing. The vendor's footprint is functionally a single-customer, single-product-family operation optimized for DLA Land and Maritime's recurring hose procurement rhythm.

LIFE SUPPORT EQUIPMENT HOSES (OXYGEN BREATHING HOSE), COMMUNICATION CABLES, MISSILE INSULATION, MOLDED RUBBER AND COMPOSITE PRODUCTS, CUSTOM RUBBER COMPOUNDING.