Blake Strickland

Blake Strickland serves as a Contract Specialist at the Naval Air Warfare Center Air Division, where he plays a critical role in acquiring advanced aviation systems essential to maintaining naval air superiority. He manages the full lifecycle of complex procurement actions, from requirements definition and market research to contract award and administration, with a focus on mission-critical avionics, electronic warfare subsystems, and aircraft integration technologies. His work directly supports the agency’s mission to modernize airborne sensor suites and sustain legacy platforms, ensuring operational readiness across the fleet through timely and compliant contracting solutions. Strickland maintains consistent working relationships with leading defense contractors including SABRE SYSTEMS, LLC, THE BOEING COMPANY, SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, SYSTEMS PLANNING AND ANALYSIS, INC., and ONTIC ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING, INC. These partnerships center on high-technical-domain procurements involving aircraft subsystems, systems engineering, and mission-critical software development. His contracting approach emphasizes collaboration with established prime contractors possessing deep domain expertise in naval aviation systems, often leveraging Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) and Other Transaction Authority (OTA) mechanisms to accelerate innovation and fielding. Strickland’s procurement portfolio reflects a strong preference for full and open competition, with 100% of his acquisitions conducted without set-aside designations such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB. While he does not currently utilize socioeconomic set-asides, his contracting practices remain fully compliant with federal acquisition regulations and emphasize value-driven outcomes over socioeconomic preferences, prioritizing technical capability and mission alignment above all. His primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 336413 (Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing), followed by aircraft manufacturing and research and development in physical sciences. He regularly procures custom avionics, radar integration components, electronic warfare countermeasures, and specialized aircraft maintenance systems, demonstrating deep expertise in aerospace engineering and defense systems acquisition. His technical domain spans airborne sensor suites, mission computer architectures, and integrated communications networks critical to next-generation naval aviation platforms.