Yesterday (May 6th), the US Forest Service (USFS) announced a notice of intent
to award five companies Next Generation Airtanker Contracts. The contract is for five years with five one year options (years 6 through 10). What is known as the awards abstract, listing awards for the first five years and the five option years may be found here. Tankers under this contract must be turbine or turbojets and carry a minimum of 3,000 gallons of retardant. Those who received the awards are.:
Minden Air Corp (Minden, NV) - 1 BAe-146
Aero Air LLC (Hillsboro, OR) - 2 MD87s
Aero Flite, Inc (Kingman, AZ) - 2 Avro RJ85s
Coulson Aircrane USA (Portland OR) - 1 C130Q
10 Tanker Air Carrier, LLC (Adelanto CA) - 1 DC-10
Of the seven aircraft, only the DC-10 tanker is currently flying. The hope and expectation is that the six remaining tankers will come into service within a year. You may notice that Neptune Aviation is not on this list. Last year, the USFS issued a notice of intent for Next Generation Airtankers with Neptune Aviation being one of those receiving an intended award. When protests were made challenging these June 2012 intended awards were upheld by the U.S. Office of Government Accountability the USFS reopened the bidding.
It is important to note that Neptune Aviation has what is known as a Legacy Air Tanker contract with the USFS for six P-2V's and one BAe-146. Minden has one P-2V under the Legacy Air Tanker contract.
Two articles on the Next Generation Airtanker Contract awards thanks to Mike Archer at Firebomber Publications from
Elko Daily Free Press announcing the Next Gen awards
Billings Gazette on Neptune Aviation's situation.
BIll Gabbert of Fire Aviation has a nice article announcing the Next Generation Airtanker awards, a summary of the events of the last year, and a chart of specifications of current (including those receiving the May 6th Next Gen Awards) and potential air tankers. Bill's article, which is worth reading, may be found here.
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