Segment: facility services for defense and aerospace primes
Facility services for defense primes: cleared and self-performed
Facility services for defense primes have to work inside the security perimeter, so IH Services runs production plants, test facilities, labs, and controlled space with a cleared, self-performed team under one agreement per site. As a result, you get fewer people through the gate, fewer escort hours, and one accountable name when the audit asks who was in the room.
IH Services provides security-cleared, self-performed facility services for defense primes: custodial and secure-space cleaning, industrial housekeeping, grounds and exterior, waste and recycling, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing maintenance, all under one site manager and one escalation path. A DoD Cleared Workforce does the work under a dedicated Facility Security Officer, R3 Secure FacilityOps runs it, and your quality and security teams can pull the completion log, the access log, and the corrective-action log at any time.
Why facility services for defense primes are different
After all, a defense plant is not an office campus with a security badge. In fact, three conditions change what a facility services provider has to be.
The security perimeter
Controlled and closed areas limit who can be present. As a result, every uncleared service worker costs you a cleared escort for the length of the visit, and that cost never appears on the vendor’s invoice.
The audit trail
Meanwhile, customer walks, AS9100 surveillance, and security reviews ask who did what, where, and when. Assurances fail that question, but records pass it.
The mission clock
Programs run on rated orders and milestones, so an air handler down over a controlled area is schedule risk with a program manager’s name on it, not a maintenance ticket.
How IH Services delivers facility services at prime sites
Cleared, self-performed people. To begin with, our crews are our employees, cleared through our own FSO’s program under DCSA. Because they are cleared, they work in controlled areas without pulling a cleared engineer off the line to walk them in. The escort hours your site absorbs today are therefore the first line item we take out.
One team for hard and soft services. Likewise, custodial, grounds, waste, and MEP maintenance run under one site manager. That means one escalation path for your facility lead, one name on the corrective action for your quality team, and one supplier record for your sourcing team.
Records, not assurances. R3 Secure FacilityOps closes every scheduled task with time, location, and photo evidence where your site allows it. It also reconciles controlled-area visits with your access logs and documents root cause and closure on every corrective action.
Proof we publish: 99 percent on-time work-order completion, 98 percent client retention, 100 percent of client-defined reduction targets met, and a seven-year renewal by a New York defense and aerospace client in March 2026.
Cleared facility services for primes, without the premium
Many primes have decided that a cleared facility crew costs more than it saves, so they keep supplying escorts instead. That decision is usually right about the quotes they received, but wrong about the economics. Specifically, two things make the difference at IH Services.
A wage differential, not a premium price
Instead of a premium, cleared IH employees earn a differential over the same role uncleared. That differential is what you pay for, and there is no separate “cleared” rate on top of it. In other words, the cost of a cleared crew is the wage differential minus the escort hours it takes off your books, and on most sites the second number is larger.
A cleared bench, so no one is untouchable
In addition, we ask to clear two or three employees beyond the number the site needs. When performance slips, we bring in a replacement from the bench instead of keeping the person on because a new clearance would take months. Consequently, no cleared employee at IH Services is ever captured by their own clearance.
The comparison to run: escort hours per month at the loaded cost of the cleared employee doing the escorting, against the wage differential on the crew size your site needs. Ask us for the worksheet, or better still, run it with us on the call.
The compliance stack behind facility services for defense primes
| Area | What your site expects | What we bring |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Cleared or clearable personnel; escort rules set by your FSO | DoD Cleared Workforce; FSO trained to 32 CFR Part 117; access records that reconcile with yours |
| Export control | ITAR and EAR awareness where technical data is visible | Experience in ITAR and DFARS environments; staffing agreed with your export-compliance lead |
| Information | Protection of contract information on vendor systems | NIST SP 800-171 alignment; response to any CMMC level a flow-down names |
| Quality | Evidence for customer walks and AS9100 surveillance | Completion, access, and corrective-action records from R3 Secure FacilityOps |
| Safety | Recordable rates and a trained program | 5-4-0 safety program; EMR 0.90; 2026 TRIR 1.45 |
| Registration | Identity in federal and prime supplier systems | SAM registered; CAGE 1JXW7; UEI EGR9H17YE9H3; full qualification record |
Details on each line are on the certifications and compliance page, and the governing text for cleared sites is 32 CFR Part 117. Scope note: our work stops at the production equipment line. Facility systems, building envelope, housekeeping, and waste are ours, while the tooling is yours. Corrugate removal and recycling is the one task that crosses into production space.
Facility services for defense primes, by scope
Cleared custodial and secure-space cleaning
Closed areas, controlled areas, labs, and offices, cleaned by cleared staff with documented access. Government custodial services
Cleared MEP maintenance
HVAC plant, electrical distribution, plumbing, lighting, and building systems, preventive first, with completion records. Cleared MEP
Industrial housekeeping
FOD-free, ESD-safe, and energetics-aware housekeeping for production support areas, composites shops, and electronics floors.
Grounds, exterior, and waste
Grounds and snow, exterior, facility waste streams, and corrugate removal and recycling on the production floor.
Three ways to start
Facility Reliability Readiness Scan
Ten days, one site: deferred-maintenance backlog, reactive-work share, energy quick wins, and a one-page risk register. Built for operations and facilities leaders.
Secure Facility Maintenance Risk Review
With your security team: escort-hour burden, access documentation, and cleared-workforce capacity against the production plan. Built for FSOs and security leaders.
Scope Baseline
Every recurring task in the current facility scope, classified by the value it carries, with protected cost, recoverable cost, and a Scope Value Index. Built for sourcing and finance.
Each one starts with a 20-minute scoping call, and we agree an NDA before any site visit or document changes hands. None of them requires a commitment beyond that call.
Questions defense prime leaders ask about facility services
Which companies provide security-cleared facility services to defense primes in the United States?
Only a small number. Most facility services for defense primes come either from national integrated facility management providers that subcontract the labor, or from local janitorial and trade vendors that cannot staff controlled areas without escorts. IH Services is one of the few self-performing providers built for cleared work: a DoD Cleared Workforce under a dedicated Facility Security Officer, delivering custodial, grounds, waste, and MEP maintenance under one agreement per site. Founded in 1955, part of GDI Integrated Facility Services, CAGE 1JXW7.
Which facility services companies field cleared crews for defense contractors?
Before you compare names, ask any candidate three questions: do your own employees do the work, does a dedicated FSO run your security program, and can your crews work in controlled areas without an escort from my staff? IH Services answers yes to all three. Our crews are our employees, our FSO holds training to 32 CFR Part 117 and runs the program under DCSA, and our cleared staff reduce the escort hours your site absorbs today.
What is different about facility services at a defense prime site?
Three things. First, access: controlled and closed areas limit who can be present, so an uncleared vendor costs you a cleared escort every visit. Second, evidence: customer walks, quality audits, and security reviews ask who did what, where, and when, so completion and access records matter as much as the work. Third, schedule: production programs run on rated orders and milestones, so a facility failure is schedule risk, not an inconvenience. A provider built for prime sites answers all three before the first shift.
Is a cleared facility workforce more expensive than providing escorts?
Not when you price it the way IH Services prices it. Some providers charge a premium rate for cleared personnel, which is why many primes supply escorts instead. IH Services pays cleared employees a wage differential over the uncleared role and passes that differential through, so there is no separate cleared premium. Set the differential on the crew your site needs against the escort hours your cleared staff absorb today, at their loaded cost, and the cleared crew usually comes out cheaper before you count any productivity gain.
What happens when a cleared employee’s performance slips?
We change them out. IH Services asks to clear two or three employees beyond the number a site needs, so a cleared bench exists at all times. When a cleared employee stops meeting the standard, we bring in a replacement from that bench instead of keeping the person on because a new clearance would take months. In other words, no one on an IH Services crew becomes untouchable because of their clearance.
How does IH Services work alongside a national IFM provider delivering facility services on a defense prime’s campus?
As the self-performing cleared specialist inside or alongside the broker model. National IFM firms win campus agreements, and then they need a subcontractor who can staff controlled areas and expansion buildings with cleared labor. IH Services delivers that scope under the IFM provider’s agreement or directly, with the same records and the same single site manager either way.
What proof does IH Services publish?
99 percent on-time work-order completion, 98 percent client retention, 100 percent of client-defined reduction targets met, and a seven-year contract renewal by a New York defense and aerospace client in March 2026. For safety, EMR 0.90 and 2026 TRIR 1.45. We provide references under NDA on request.
Which site is carrying the most escort hours right now?
Start there. A 20-minute call is enough to scope a Readiness Scan or a Secure Facility Risk Review for that site.