ORO Manufacturing Wins Record $16.5 Million Navy Seat Contract
The Monroe, North Carolina, family-owned metal fabricator secured a five-year, sole-source deal to supply aircraft seats for the Navy through July 12, 2031, its largest award ever.
MONROE, NORTH CAROLINA — ORO Manufacturing Co., a third-generation family-owned metal fabricator in Monroe, North Carolina, won the largest contract in its history to build aircraft seats for the Navy.
The award, announced July 13, 2026, carries a maximum value of $16.5 million under a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity structure, according to war.gov. It surpasses the company’s previous record of $10.6 million and runs five years with no option periods.
“We specialize in full-service metal fabrication based on customer-supplied designs,” the company said on its website, according to oromfg.com.
The deal matters because it locks in a specialized supplier for equipment that keeps aircrews strapped in and cargo secured. ORO is one of the oldest and largest troop-seat manufacturers in the United States, offering nearly 200 seat configurations, according to oromfg.com.
Money for the contract comes from fiscal 2026 through 2031 defense working capital funds, a revolving account that pays for goods sold within the Defense Department. The Defense Logistics Agency Weapons Support in Richmond, Virginia, is the contracting activity, and the Navy is the using customer, according to war.gov. The ordering period ends July 12, 2031.
Winners and losers sort out quickly in a sole-source award. ORO gains guaranteed access to Navy orders for five years, while rival fabricators are shut out because the government invoked 10 U.S. Code 3204 (a)(1), the statute permitting a single-source buy when only one responsible source can meet the need.
ORO began working with the Department of Defense in the mid-1940s, producing lightweight seating for troop and cargo transport aircraft, according to oromfg.com. Its seats fit airframes built by Bell Helicopter/Textron, Lockheed Martin, Boeing Helicopters and Sikorsky Aircraft. The company started as a small tool-and-die shop and now serves the largest users in the free world, according to findingmfg.com.
Measured against the agency’s 2026 book of business, the award sits near the bottom. The Defense Logistics Agency’s contracts this year have ranged from roughly $9.3 million to $1.53 billion, placing ORO’s deal just above the year-to-date floor. It was the 22nd Department of Defense contract awarded in North Carolina during 2026 and one of 11 issued nationwide that day.
For the average reader, the contract does not change daily life, but it channels federal dollars into a small-town manufacturer and the roughly 200 seat designs it supplies to military fleets.
Has this happened before? Yes. ORO has supplied the Pentagon for eight decades, and this marks its first contract of 2026, lifting its total for the year to $16.5 million, according to war.gov. The scale, however, is new for a firm whose prior high stood at $10.6 million.
The next decision rests with the Defense Logistics Agency, which will place individual orders against the indefinite-quantity ceiling as Navy needs arise. A date for the first order has not been announced.
Small family manufacturers arming the U.S. military is a thread that runs deep in American industrial history. During World War II, thousands of modest shops retooled to feed the war effort, and firms like ORO began stitching heavy canvas troop seats in the 1940s, according to oromfg.com. Over eight decades the company lightened and refined those designs into nearly 200 configurations. The result is a Monroe workshop that still outfits helicopters and transports flown by the world’s largest air forces.
Source: NewsFindr Chart Maker
Note: Chart generated by NewsFindr for ORO Manufacturing Co. on July 13, 2026 at 5:21 PM ET