US Forest Service Awards New Airtanker Contract

I am sure that some of you already know that the US Forest Service awarded five companies a potential of a 10 year contract worth $7.2 billion, especially those of you who follow Fire Aviation as I do. Specifically. Kelly Andersson has written two articles about these contracts, the first was on August 14th announcing the five companies that got the awards, I'll get to that in a minute and a second article on August 17th  where he followed up with some questions that he and his readers had and the answers from  public affairs specialists that NIFC referred him to. I hope that you will read this coverage, especially the Q&A post on August 17th. I am going to summarize to the best of my ability.

Five companies were awarded contracts with a guaranteed minimum of $10,000 (not $10 million) over the ten years of the contract:

• 10 Tanker Air Carrier, LLC
• Aero Air, LLC
• Aero Flite Inc
• Coulson Aviation USA Inc
• Neptune Aviation

As I understand the $7.2 billion figure will give them flexibility in having the necessary number of airtankers in this year and subsequent years to meet the demand for airtankers. At the time that Kelly wrote the August 17th article the Forest Service had contracted with 25 airtankers, a number that is likely to change as time goes on. Finally, there is no limit to the number of airtankers that can be contracted for each year, the only limit is the total amount of the contract, $7.2 billion.

Kudos to Kelly Andersson of Fire Aviation for providing us with this information and for his efforts in contacting a public affairs specialist who answered his questions.

2023 Wildfire Season: US Forest Service Airtankers on Contract

I want to write about the US Forest Service Airtankers on contract with the US Forest Fire Service in 2023. I am only able to do this because of the work of Fire Aviation in their June 2, 2023 article (which may be updated as time goes on). What I write here is current on July 5th and I am copying some information from my Airtankers 101 page. I refer you to the June 2, 2023 Fire Aviation article for more thorough information and a chart listing the tankers on contract. To sum up:

The US Forest Service has twelve air tankers on Exclusive Use Contracts with an estimated 160 days of mandatory availability ranging from a start date of March 16 to May 27 2023. Estimated ending dates of the mandatory availability period range from September 17 to November 30, 2023

• 1 DC-10 tankers (10 Tanker)
• 1 B737 (Coulson)
• 2 MD-87 tankers (Aero Air)
• 4 RJ85 tankers (Aero Flite)
• 4 BAe tankers (Neptune Aviation)

Call When Needed Activations: 

• 1 DC-10 tanker (10 Tanker), mandatory availability ends on October 3, 2023
• 2 CL-415 scoopers from Aero Flite mandatory availability ends on September 23, 2023

Here is some information I have on my Airtankers 101 page with a little more information about the contractor and their airtankers on USFS contract.

Contractors with large and very large airtankers and Scoopers that have contracts with the US Forest Fire Service in 2023. Some contractors have other types of tankers in their fleet. 

• 10 Tanker DC-10 tankers has four DC-10 tankers as of July 2023 that carry 9,400 gallons of retardant each, go to this 10 Tanker page to download a fact sheet with more information
• Coulson Aircrane, Coulson has a Facebook Page. Among the aircraft they fly on fires is the C-130Q, 4,000 gallons and a 737 Fireliner (I believe but am not certain it carries 4,000 gallons) You can read about the Coulson fleet here.
• Aero Flite Inc. has RJ-85 tankers. Each tanker can carry 3,000 gallons of retardant. Aero Flite also has CL-415 scoopers that can carry 1,621 gallons of water and 90 gallons of foam
• Aero Air, LLC. Aero Air flies the MD-87 airtanker Aero Air wholly owns Ericsson Aero Tanker. Ericsson Aero Tankers has MD-87 tankers with a capacity of 3,000 gallons of retardant.
• Neptune Aviation has a fleet of nine BAe-146 tankers each can carry 3,000 gallons of retardant.