Sargent Aerospace & Defense, LLC

Sargent Aerospace & Defense, LLC, doing business as Kahr Bearings, manufactures and overhauls specialized bearing and rod-end components for military aircraft and ground vehicles, operating as a prime contractor (64% of recent awards) and subcontractor to major defense primes. The company competes exclusively in full-and-open procurement with no small business set-aside designations across its entire federal footprint.

Sargent Aerospace & Defense is a for-profit limited liability company headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, where all manufacturing, overhaul, and remanufacturing work is performed. The vendor's capability portfolio centers on depot-level bearing overhaul and remanufacturing — particularly trunnion bearings for C-5 Galaxy landing gear, swashplate liner replacement and Dicronite application for AH-64 Apache rotor assemblies, and rod-end and spherical bearing production for next-generation rotorcraft. Representative prime work includes a $727,950 delivery order from the Air Force Sustainment Center (July 2025) for C-5 main landing gear trunnion bearing remanufacturing, a $203,826 follow-on overhaul delivery order (January 2026) under the same indefinite delivery contract, and a $100,128 purchase order from Army Aviation and Missile Command (October 2024) for AH-64 swashplate liner replacement. The vendor also holds a $1,915,130 single-award indefinite delivery contract with the Air Force Sustainment Center running through July 2027 for ongoing C-5 trunnion bearing depot services, established in July 2025 under full-and-open competition.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed to Air Force depot maintenance. The Air Force Sustainment Center accounts for 34 awards worth $14.1 million in combined potential value (82% of total prime dollars), followed distantly by the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation (31 awards, $788 thousand), the Department of the Army (17 awards), and the Department of the Navy Naval Air Systems Command (12 awards). The split between award count and potential value is extreme — while DLA Aviation places the second-highest number of orders, they are small volume replenishment calls; the Air Force's 34 awards represent the bulk of the dollar value. The vendor serves 11 distinct customer agencies total, but the portfolio is concentrated on two primary platforms: C-5 sustainment and AH-64 component support.

The vendor places task orders under five named indefinite delivery contracts. The largest parent vehicle is Indefinite Delivery Contract FA852409D0005 with 12 task orders worth $2.7 million combined potential value; FA852414D0022 carries 9 task orders valued at $1 million; and FA853820D0002 holds 6 task orders worth $2.2 million. Contract W56HZV21D0001 supports Army ground vehicle work with 6 task orders, and SPM44103D1118 carries 5 smaller orders.

Recent activity has accelerated sharply. The vendor issued 3 awards in 2022, 5 in 2023, 14 in 2024, and 29 in 2025, reflecting growing call-out volume against existing indefinite delivery vehicles. Only 3 awards (combined potential value $1 million) complete within the next twenty-four months, indicating light recompete exposure in the near term; however, the underlying IDV structures themselves will require renewal or recompete to sustain the current flow of task orders.

In its subcontractor role, Sargent Aerospace & Defense supplies bearing and rod-end assemblies to Bell Textron across the Future Vertical Lift program (Capability Set Three), with multiple sub awards since May 2025 for spherical wing-attach bearings, trunnion bearing assemblies, and pitch-link rod-end components. The vendor also subs to General Dynamics Land Systems on M1A1-to-M1A2 SEPV3 Abrams tank upgrades (multiple awards December 2024–December 2025), to Bell Boeing Joint Project Office on CMV-22 Osprey production and sustainment (bearing and bushing sub awards spanning 2023–2025), and to Lockheed Martin on F-35 long-lead bearing and drag-rod assemblies (sub awards June 2023–August 2024). The vendor's NAICS footprint breaks down into Aircraft Manufacturing (32 awards), Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing (31 awards), and Ball and Roller Bearing Manufacturing (27 awards); PSC concentration runs to Bearings, Plain, Unmounted (38 awards) and Maintenance/Repair/Rebuild of Aircraft Components (15 awards). The company operates as an original equipment manufacturer and sole-source provider on C-5 trunnion bearing work, a structural advantage in Air Force sustainment procurement but a concentration risk if the C-5 fleet sustainment profile shifts or the vehicle retires.