SAMANTHA DEARDEN

Samantha Dearden serves as the primary procurement lead for the Land Supply Chain under the Department of Defense’s DLA Land and Maritime, where she oversees the acquisition of mission-critical mechanical and fabricated metal components essential to the sustainment of military vehicles, weapons platforms, and tactical support systems. Her role centers on ensuring operational readiness through the timely procurement of high-reliability, defense-grade parts designed to withstand extreme environmental and mechanical stress. She manages the full lifecycle of contracts for ordnance and ordnance-related hardware, from requirement validation and source selection to contract award and performance monitoring, aligning all acquisitions with DoD supply chain resilience standards. Dearden maintains a streamlined contracting approach focused on a narrow, specialized vendor base qualified to meet stringent military specifications for metal fabrication and small arms components. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages with certified defense suppliers possessing AS9100 and ITAR compliance, prioritizing vendors with proven track records in precision machining, heat treatment, and ballistic-grade material fabrication. Her working relationships are characterized by long-term performance-based partnerships rather than transactional engagements, emphasizing quality assurance and supply chain continuity. Her procurement strategy reflects a strict preference for unrestricted competition, with 100% of her acquisitions conducted under the No Set-Aside category. This underscores a focus on technical capability and mission-critical performance over socioeconomic categorization, though she remains compliant with all federal small business reporting requirements. Her approach prioritizes mission necessity and supply chain integrity above socioeconomic set-asides. Dearden’s technical focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 332994—Small Arms, Ordnance, and Ordnance Accessories Manufacturing. She procures precision-fabricated metal components including gun barrels, breech mechanisms, mounting brackets, and armored plate assemblies, requiring deep familiarity with MIL-SPEC standards, metallurgical testing protocols, and defense logistics frameworks. Her expertise lies in sourcing components that meet exacting ballistic, thermal, and fatigue resistance criteria critical to frontline military operations.