The Defense Logistics Agency has just issued a Sources Sought Solicitation looking for companies that can produce this sole-source air conditioning duct used on the C-130 aircraft. The duct, NSN 1660-01-581-4165 has a manufacturer’s part number of 698270-1.
Currently Lockheed Martin is the only supplier. DLA would like to see more competition for this item. Last year the military purchased 81 ducts at $5,659 each for a total contract value of $444,436. The MLC price per unit is $9,388.
There are no drawings available for this item but DLA has often made samples available for contractors that wish to reverse engineer sole source items.
This pre-solicitation is market research required by law, which is published before issuing a sole-source justification to the incumbent supplier. This provides vendors additional time to reach out to buyers and let them know their desire to compete for this business.
All offers are due by September 20, 2023.
To learn more about this opportunity, log into BidLink and put SPE4A5-23-R-0181 into the “Search for Anything” box. More solicitations like this can be found using BidLink’s intelligent solicitation search. BidLink can help you acquire a sample of this item to reverse engineer.
