Rinalda N Butts

Rinalda N. Butts serves as a Contract Specialist at the Naval Air Warfare Center Air Division, where she plays a pivotal role in executing complex acquisitions for advanced naval aviation systems. Her responsibilities encompass the full lifecycle of contract management—from solicitation and evaluation to award and administration—ensuring compliance with federal regulations and alignment with the agency’s mission to modernize airborne sensor suites, electronic warfare systems, and mission-critical avionics. She routinely handles sole-source, competitive, and sealed-bid procurements for high-technology defense platforms, emphasizing technical rigor, risk mitigation, and operational readiness. Butts maintains established 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 reflect a balanced approach between large prime contractors with deep systems integration capabilities and specialized firms delivering niche engineering and manufacturing solutions. Her procurement patterns demonstrate consistent collaboration with vendors possessing mature ITAR-compliant facilities and proven experience in airborne system sustainment and rapid prototyping. A strong advocate for socioeconomic opportunity, Butts prioritizes small business participation, with approximately two-thirds of her acquisitions structured as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5. This reflects a deliberate strategy to cultivate a robust supplier base of small, innovative firms capable of supporting agile development cycles and specialized technical requirements. While no set-asides are designated for 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB programs specifically, her portfolio consistently includes qualified small businesses as prime contractors or key subcontractors. Though NAICS data is not available, her acquisitions center on advanced avionics, communications, navigation, and electronic warfare subsystems—domains requiring expertise in RF systems, embedded software, signal processing, and mission computer integration. Her technical acumen ensures procurements align with the Navy’s strategic imperatives in air superiority and next-generation platform modernization.