1st Lt. Maria Kedge

1st Lt. Maria Kedge serves as a key procurement specialist within the FA8539 organization of the Department of the Air Force, where she manages critical acquisitions for airborne electronic systems essential to air dominance and mission readiness. Her responsibilities include soliciting, evaluating, and awarding contracts for advanced avionics, radar, navigation, and identification systems used across legacy and next-generation aircraft platforms. She plays a pivotal role in sustaining operational integrity through life-extension programs and cybersecurity-hardened upgrades, ensuring that mission-critical systems remain viable against evolving threats. Her portfolio is exclusively focused on technical acquisitions within the aeronautical systems domain, requiring deep familiarity with DoD acquisition regulations and defense-specific technical standards. Kedge maintains consistent, long-term partnerships with industry leaders including NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION, AMD INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, and R F PRODUCTS, INC., all of which provide specialized engineering, integration, and sustainment services for high-reliability electronic subsystems. Her contracting approach emphasizes technical excellence, proven performance, and supply chain resilience, often leveraging firm-fixed-price and cost-reimbursement contract types suited for complex, low-volume defense systems. These relationships are characterized by collaborative engineering reviews and rigorous compliance with MIL-STD and DO-160 certification requirements. Kedge’s contracting portfolio reflects a strict focus on open competition, with 100% of awards issued under no set-aside preferences. She does not prioritize 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB set-asides, instead emphasizing technical capability and system interoperability as primary selection criteria. This approach aligns with the high-stakes nature of airborne electronic systems, where performance and reliability outweigh socioeconomic preferences. Her procurement activity is concentrated entirely within NAICS 334511, specializing in the acquisition of search, detection, navigation, guidance, and aeronautical instrumentation systems. She routinely procures radar signal processors, electronic warfare suites, secure data links, and integrated navigation modules, demonstrating deep expertise in military avionics architecture and systems engineering lifecycle management.