Defense Engineering Services LLC, a service-disabled veteran-owned engineering and manufacturing company in Ladson, is one of 24 companies on a new Air Force contract for aircraft ground equipment with a $920 million ceiling shared by all of them.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s support equipment and vehicles office at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, made the multiple-award contract, the Pentagon announced Aug. 17. Sixty-six companies made offers, and the work is expected to run through 2036.
The contract, called Next Generation Aerospace Ground Equipment, or NGAGE, covers gear used on the ground to launch, recover and maintain aircraft, according to an Air Force notice. It is meant to let the Air Force move money quickly to design, develop, test and implement new solutions for aircraft including fighters, bombers, cargo planes, tankers and drones. The notice said it is not intended for long-term sustainment or full production runs.
The companies will compete for individual orders. The Air Force obligated $15,000 at award, according to the Pentagon. The basic contract carries no small-business set-aside, though individual orders may be set aside, the Air Force said. Other winners include Lockheed Martin, Oshkosh, Booz Allen, HDT and TLD.
A bid protest by TEST-FUCHS Corp. involving the contract was dismissed Oct. 1, according to the Government Accountability Office’s docket.
Defense Engineering Services was founded in 2013 by engineers and technicians who had worked together on the MRAP armored vehicle program, according to its website. The company says it has more than 40 people and a 53,000-square-foot cleared facility on Weber Boulevard, and it earned AS9100D aerospace quality certification in 2024.
In 2023, the company announced a $2.5 million expansion that the governor’s office said would create 45 jobs. “Operations have grown year over year for a decade,” managing principals Bob Cole and Greg Gordon said in the announcement.
