Status of air tankers, March 13, 2013

Minden's T-48
Minden’s T-48 at Rapid City air tanker base during the Myrtle Fire, July 21, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert

When all of the U.S. Forest Service air tanker contracts expired on December 31, 2012, that left the agency without any when the new year rolled around.

To temporarily fill the gap, the USFS has extended the expired contracts for Minden and Neptune through April 22. Today there are three P2V’s working. Minden’s T-48 is at Porterville, CA, Neptune’s T-07 is at Lake City, FL and Neptune’s T-44 is at Alamogordo, NM.

It has been 469 days since the agency issued the solicitation for next-generation air tankers but no contracts have been awarded. Also pending are solicitations for legacy and very large air tankers.

The USFS has told at least one air tanker vendor that they expect some of the new contracts to be announced either this week or next. We are checking to see if a 30-day waiting period will be required after the announcement while Congress is notified. The last time the USFS announced their intention to award contracts, last summer, Congress passed a bill that eliminated the waiting period for those contracts because of the shortage of air tankers. And then later the USFS had to cancel the almost-signed contracts after unsuccessful bidders lodged protests. There is a good chance there will be more protests the next time contracts are awarded.

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3 thoughts on “Status of air tankers, March 13, 2013”

  1. Have any of the three been in for their maintenance this year?? I don’t know when the contracts ended for 07 and 44 but the photo of 48 dropping with snow covered backgrounds was in December, correct?? Just curious. Working those old rigs hard anymore!!

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