Kristie Hand

Kristie Hand serves as a key procurement lead within the FA8118 unit of the Department of the Air Force, responsible for managing complex acquisitions to sustain and modernize critical aerospace systems. Her work directly supports the airworthiness of legacy and active-duty platforms including the B-52, KC-135, E-3, T-38, and B-1 by overseeing contracts for the remanufacture, overhaul, and limited new manufacture of high-integrity flight-critical components such as fuel pumps, servo-cylinders, actuators, and gearboxes. She specializes in technical procurement actions governed by FAR Part 12 and Part 13, ensuring compliance with military specifications and aerospace quality standards while aligning acquisitions with the agency’s operational readiness objectives. Hand maintains consistent working relationships with a core group of specialized contractors, including Moog Military Aircraft LLC, AMD International Technologies LLC, Texas Aerospace Services Inc, AeroCorex LLC, and United Dynamics, Inc. These vendors are recognized for their expertise in aerospace component remanufacturing, precision machining, and FAA/EASA-compliant overhaul processes. Her procurement approach emphasizes long-term vendor partnerships grounded in technical capability, quality assurance, and supply chain resilience, often leveraging blanket purchase agreements and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts to ensure timely delivery of mission-critical parts. Hand’s contracting portfolio reflects a balanced commitment to socioeconomic goals, with approximately half of her awards structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5, while the remainder remain open to all competitors. This pattern demonstrates a deliberate strategy to foster innovation and capacity within the small business aerospace industrial base, particularly among firms with specialized expertise in military aircraft subsystems. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 336413—Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing—reflecting deep technical domain expertise in the lifecycle management of flight control, hydraulic, and propulsion subsystems. She consistently procures components requiring stringent certification, traceability, and compliance with military standards such as MIL-SPEC and SAE AS9100, ensuring operational reliability across the Air Force’s aging and modernized fleet.