CPI Aero
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CPI Aero AMEX: CVU is an aerospace and defense contractor headquartered in Edgewood, New York on Long Island.
CPI was founded in 1980 by two former executives of Grumman Corporation. It adopted its current name in January 2005, on its 25th anniversary, at the same time it relocated to its current facility which was nearly twice the size of its old location.
CPI manufactures structural aircraft parts for the Department of Defense, primarily for the United States Air Force. It primarily focuses on aircraft that are still in use by DoD, but where the original manufacturer no longer wishes to provide support. Aircraft for which CPI manufactures parts are the C-5 Galaxy, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, the T-38 Talon, and the E-3 Sentry. CPI outsources manufacturing of component parts and performs final assembly at its Edgewood facility.
CPI considers itself a "mini" prime contractor, in that it claims the ability to provide the technical expertise and program management required with larger DoD contracts, but without the sizeable overhead of the larger defense contractors. CPI is classified as a small business, and thus can compete for "set-aside" small business contracts and subcontracts. CPI claims to have a "win rate" (i.e., successful wins on competitive bids) of 13%, which it also claims to be well above the industry average of 5%.
In early 2004, CPI was awarded a major set-aside contract to supply C-5 wing tips, panels, and other parts (referred to as the TOPS contract). The potential value of this contract could be up to $215 million over the seven-year life of the contract. CPI was also selected as a "critical subcontractor" by Vought Aircraft Industries on Vought's "unrestricted" C-5 TOPS contract. However, orders under the TOPS contracts have been delayed pending government review of needs. During 2005, CPI announced that it has been given major subcontract orders from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.
