Christa Spalding

Christa Spalding serves as a key procurement professional within the Naval Air Warfare Center Air Division, supporting the development, testing, and sustainment of advanced naval aviation systems. She manages complex acquisitions for mission-critical avionics, electronic warfare suites, and integrated flight systems, ensuring alignment with the Navy’s strategic priorities in air superiority and fleet readiness. Her portfolio encompasses high-technology hardware, software, and engineering services essential to next-generation aircraft platforms, with a focus on end-to-end lifecycle support from prototyping to field sustainment. Spalding operates at the intersection of technical innovation and acquisition compliance, ensuring contracts meet rigorous defense standards while enabling rapid capability insertion. She maintains consistent working relationships with leading defense contractors including SABRE SYSTEMS, LLC, The Boeing Company, SAIC, Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., and ONTIC ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING, INC. These partnerships reflect a reliance on established industry leaders with proven expertise in aerospace systems integration, mission software development, and precision manufacturing. Her contracting approach emphasizes technical rigor, performance-based outcomes, and long-term sustainment support, often involving multi-year, complex task orders requiring deep domain knowledge in airborne sensor systems and mission-critical avionics. Spalding’s procurement activity is entirely non-set-aside, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition. This reflects a strategic focus on accessing the broadest possible pool of technical expertise rather than socioeconomic set-asides, prioritizing capability over certification status. While small business participation is not formally incentivized through set-aside mechanisms, her portfolio may still include small business subcontractors integrated into prime contractor teams under performance-based requirements. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 336414 (guided missile and space vehicle manufacturing), 334511 (aeronautical system and instrument manufacturing), and 513210 (software publishing), underscoring deep expertise in airborne navigation, sensor integration, flight control systems, and embedded mission software. She consistently acquires high-reliability hardware, real-time software, and test instrumentation critical to modern naval air operations.