Karla Freeling

Karla Freeling serves as a key procurement lead within the FA5702 379 Econs unit of the Department of the Air Force, responsible for managing mission-critical acquisitions that sustain airfield and facility operations at expeditionary and overseas installations. Her work ensures the continuous availability of infrastructure and support systems vital to airpower readiness, with a focus on integrated facility sustainment, equipment maintenance, and logistical enablers. She handles a broad spectrum of service-based contracts under the NAICS 517919 category, which encompasses other telecommunications services, including network operations, remote monitoring, and mission-critical communications support. Her acquisitions directly enable the agency’s core mission of maintaining operational integrity in austere environments. Freeling maintains a broad vendor ecosystem characterized by open competition and performance-based contracting. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages with firms possessing specialized expertise in expeditionary communications, facility automation systems, and embedded logistics support. Her contracting approach emphasizes technical capability, rapid scalability, and compliance with Department of Defense cybersecurity and interoperability standards. She prioritizes vendors with proven experience in theater-based operations and modular, deployable infrastructure solutions. Freeling’s procurement pattern reflects a strong preference for open, unrestricted competition, with 100% of her awards issued under the “No Set-Aside” category. This indicates a strategic focus on technical merit and operational readiness over socioeconomic set-asides, though she remains compliant with all federal small business participation requirements. Her approach prioritizes mission need above socioeconomic criteria, ensuring that the most capable and qualified providers are selected to support time-sensitive, high-stakes operations. Her primary industry focus is NAICS 517919, which encompasses complex telecommunications and network services supporting air base command, control, and communications. She procures specialized systems including secure data links, remote facility monitoring platforms, and integrated maintenance management software. Her technical domain expertise lies in expeditionary communications infrastructure, ensuring seamless connectivity and operational resilience across global Air Force installations.