Contracting Archives - Fire Aviation

Australian fleet poised and ready, while waiting for late arrivals

David Bruce21. December 2024Contracting, Fixed wing, Helicopters, Wildfire10 Comments

The Australian aerial firefighting fleet has been upgraded as an anticipated long, hot summer begins across the south, with most states expanding access to more aerial options in their local fleets.

Late season fires in the northern hemisphere have delayed the arrival of some the fleet. In Victoria, the announcement of the summer firefighting fleet of 54 aircraft was tempered by the statement that “2 Aircranes will also join the fleet once their service period ends in North America. Three additional aircraft will be on short-term contracts until the Aircranes arrive.”

The National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC) has contracted 177 aircraft on behalf of Australian state and territory governments for the 2024-25 season. This fleet is supplemented by NAFC aircraft contracted as “call when needed”, and additional state owned and state contracted aircraft hired to meet peak demand across the country. In total more than 500 aircraft, provided by over 150 operators, are available as a shared resource for firefighting across Australia for season 2024-2025.

Amid regular calls at the political level for a national sovereign fleet that is less dependent on the variable end to the northern hemisphere fire season, NAFC figures show that 95 percent of the Australian firefighting fleet is already resident year-round in Australia, including 75 percent owned and operated by Australian companies.

The remaining 5 percent are predominantly the larger aircraft, both fixed wing and rotary, that follow the fire seasons around the globe. NAFC contracts these under partnerships between Australian and foreign companies. The aircraft fly on complementary contracts in the northern hemisphere and then are, ideally, packed up and returned in time for the Australian summer.

But that start of Australian summer has its own variable timing that contributes to the annual problem of overlapping seasons across the hemispheres: along the heavily populated east coast of the continent, bushfire season can begin as early as August into September, while New South Wales regularly has a highly active October and November. Further south, Victoria fires appear around December, with Tasmania seeing most activity from January onwards.

With the Australian fire season now well into its southward trajectory from the tropical north – currently in its Wet Season after an active Dry Season of bushfires – to a southern Australia with a year of below average rainfall, fire authorities are relying on their aerial resources for essential support to ground crews. The large grassland regions abutting the forests are particularly vulnerable this year, with several large outbreaks currently being dealt with in Victoria.

The Australian Government has funded NAFC with around $A100 million ($USD 63M) for this season and the next. Two Blackhawks and a Sikorsky S-61N have recently joined the fleet.

At the end of September 2024, the contracted national fleet comprises of:

6 Large fixed wing air tankers
16 Large rotary wing aircraft (Type 1)
68 Medium and small rotary wing aircraft (Type 2 and 3)
54 Fixed wing firebombers
18 Light fixed wing

Coulson Aviation Australia has secured a long-term contract with Australia’s largest state-based fleet. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service announced in July this year that Coulson would manage the NSW fleet for the next 10 years, after managing it for the previous five.

The NSW RFS fleet of 11 aircraft includes a 737 large air tanker (the Marie Bashir, which has seen service in North America including a three-month stint in 2023), two Cessna Citations, six Bell-412 helicopters, a Chinook helicopter, and a Beechcraft Super King Air. Under the new contract, these aircraft will be overseen by primarily Australian crews, in a shift to bolster the local workforce and makes NSW more self-sufficient.

NSW RFS 737 fire tanker at NIFC. — The New South Wales Rural Fire Service 737 at the National Interagency Fire Centre in Boise, Idaho in 2023.

The fleet also supports other emergency services, such as the NSW State Emergency Service for rescues during floods, when they are not being used for firefighting duties.

Even the smaller states are increasing their capacities from the NAFC pool. Tasmania has received 15 dedicated aircraft from the NAFC fleet, to be managed locally by the Tasmania Fire Service. South Australia has retained its record high level of 31 aircraft from last year into this year, managed by the Country Fire Service, including five Blackhawk helicopters. Western Australia, immense in size but small in population, has found an extra $A10 million for its fleet, which includes four Blackhawks and a C130 Hercules.

Q&A followup on the “new” airtanker contracts

Kelly Andersson17. August 2023Contractingairtanker contracts

The USFS has awarded five companies positions on a potential 10-year, $7.2 billion contract for airtanker support services. After we posted news on these “new” airtanker contracts awarded to five tanker contractors by the U.S. Forest Service, we received numerous questions (and had several ourselves) about these awards. Here is a partial Q&A with responses provided by Laura Rabon, a public affairs specialist in Albuquerque, the expert that NIFC referred us to.

So, these are 10-year contracts, one year with 9 option years?

- These are up to 10-year contracts with one base year and the ability to exercise nine one-year options after the initial base year.

Has the FS ever had a 10-year contract in Aviation or is this a first?

- Two previous airtanker contracts (Next Gen 1.0 and Next Gen 2.0) were 10 years. Both had a 5-year base with 5 option years.

Each contractor has a guaranteed minimum of $10 million; is that for the first base year or for the duration of the contract? 

- We guarantee a minimum payment of $10k (not 10 million) over the 10-year contract, not $10k each year. Typically, the vendors receive this minimum payment immediately upon activation of their aircraft.

Is there a maximum that the FS has specified for acquisition under the contract?

- The maximum amount that could be spent against the contract is $7.2 billion over the 10 years.

How do we get 5 contractors at $10 million each up to this estimate of $7.2 billion? How much is the difference and how is that estimated? (Note: We thought the $10,000K on the contract award document was $10 million. It’s not – it’s just $10K.)

- Vendors can get a minimum of $10k (not $10 million). $7.2 billion is the most we can order against this group of 5 contracts collectively. The vendors are not guaranteed anything beyond the $10k. However, to ensure the country has the flexibility to bring on the needed number of tankers now and in the future, it was decided to use the $7.2 billion as a maximum amount. This takes into the consideration estimated daily availability costs, flight time costs, a possible need for more aircraft in the future, as well as increased costs over the term of the contract.

So five contractors are on the awardee list, those who were technically acceptable. Were other companies candidates and were not awardees?

- Companies who submitted a bid and met all the technical requirements outlined in the solicitation were awarded a contract. Due to non-disclosure policies, we cannot release further information.

How long is estimated by the agency to identify the number of tankers procured (per contractor and in total) in any one year?

- Can you please clarify this question. Are you asking about length of time it will take us to know how many aircraft we have? Or how many tankers will be used under the new contract?

Both.

- Each year the Forest Service works with the tanker vendors to get a total number of aircraft that may be available that year. This year the Forest Service has 25 contracted tankers. Additionally, several states also have airtankers). This number may change year to year depending on what the companies are able to provide.
- We will be able to procure exclusive-use and call-when-needed aircraft under task orders on the contract. There is no limit to the number of aircraft we can use under contract; however, there is a limit to the amount we can spend, which is $7.2 billion over the 10 years. The contract itself has the flexibility to increase or decrease the number of aircraft. We also have the ability to reopen the solicitation to new vendors in the future.

If you have any questions in the future that are just related to the Forest Service Fire Management like this one please send the inquiry to our Press Desk at pr*********@us**.gov.

Airtankers ON

Kelly Andersson2. June 20232. June 2023Contracting, Fixed wing2023 airtankers, contract11 Comments

The table below released by NIFC is dated May 30, 2023 — but all of these airtankers have been activated, some as early as March. No big surprises on the contract awards — most of who you hoped would be on contract, including two Aero-Flite scoopers, are on the list.

T-262 -- a 1600-gal. CL-415. Aero-Flite photo — T-262 — a 1600-gal. CL-415. Aero-Flite photo

The other airtanker contract awards include Neptune (T-40 and T-15 and T-16 and T-12), Aero-Flite with T-12 and T-162, 10 Tanker with its T-914 DC-10, Coulson’s T-137 (a 737), Aero-Flite (T-167 and T-164) and Aero Air with T-102 and T-101. The CWN activations include 10 Tanker’s T-910 (a DC-10), and the CWN Scooper activations include Aero-Flite’s S261 and S262 (both CL-415 aircraft).

2023 Airtankers — 2023 Contract Airtankers

High fives to all you pilots, personnel, and contract companies — we’re glad you’re on board!

*NOTE: No one at NIFC has responded to a couple requests
for details on this, but if they do we’ll update this post.

41 Companies on $1B Forest Service Helicopter Support Contract

Kelly Andersson28. April 202318. July 2023Contractingcontracts, helicopter, NIFC5 Comments

A potential 10-year, $1 billion contract list for helicopter support services to the U.S. Forest Service was announced yesterday.

According to a post on GOVCONWIRE, the indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity contract covers the provision of helicopters in the Type 3 category to support national resource conservation and wildland fire management programs. A notice posted Wednesday on the SAM.gov site identifies contractors on the list in a PDF linked from that site.

- - Award Details
  - Contract Award Date: Apr 26, 2023
  - Contractor Awarded Address: Boise, ID USA
  - Base and All Options Value (Total Contract Value): $1,000,000,000.00

Additional details may be available from David P. Hershey at NIFC.

Type 3 helicopters are light rotorwing aircraft that weigh up to 7,000 lbs. and can carry up to nine passengers. These contracted aircraft will support a variety of missions such as fire monitoring and suppression, initial attack, prescribed fire and aerial ignition, short-haul, and rappelling operations. The government may also use the helicopters for law enforcement and administrative flights. The firm-fixed-price contract has a one-year base period along with nine option years.

Aerial Firefighters Association to promote safety, standards, innovation

Guest Writer17. February 202318. February 2023Contracting, Legislationaviation policy, UAFA2 Comments

The launch of the United Aerial Firefighters Association adds a unified industry voice to help shape changes in fire aviation practices, policies and funding.

As noted in their launch release on February 16, the UAFA was founded in “an effort to respond to the ever-growing wildfire challenge” and unites “leading aerial firefighting companies … to form a powerful industry association that will serve to foster safety and standardization in the aerial firefighting community.”

The UAFA identifies as “the only association dedicated to aerial firefighting and is a unified voice advocating for safety and standardization on the local, state, and federal levels.” Membership is open to those who own, operate or lease wildland firefighting aviation assets, and companies supporting the aerial firefighting industry. Additionally, free memberships will be available to nonprofits and state and national agencies engaged in the wildfire community.

“We’ve seen tremendous change occur in wildland fire aviation over the last twenty years,” says John Gould, President and CEO of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, who is one of the founding members as well as the UAFA’s first president. “As we look ahead, these challenges will only become more significant. While individual organizations within the industry will always be competitive, we believe the collective expertise represented within UAFA membership will help to ensure our industry continues to grow with the innovation, safety, and standardization necessary to deliver the best service possible to our customers.”

The UAFA’s entry into policy and planning occurs at an opportune moment. With the initial report on fire aviation released this week by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, the need and value of a focused industry-expert voice becomes more apparent. Though the phrase “private aviation” only occurred three times in the commission’s report, some variation of “contract,” “contracting” or “contractor” appeared 132 times, including in the second recommendation: “Efforts should be made to include contractor perspectives in any future strategy development given that, at this time, the majority of aviation resources in the federal fleet are owned and operated by contractors.”

And in the third recommendation: ”A national strategy should consider all ownership models, including contracting and government ownership of aviation resources.”

Recommendations 5, 6 and 7 focus specifically on the contracting and financing of fire aviation, all seeking to resolve an interconnected set of concerns summarized in Finding 4: “Agencies’ current budget structures and contracting constraints have incentivized the use of contracts that are seasonal, shorter term, and, while incorporating best value considerations, ultimately favor short-term budget expediency over long-term value.”

(For more on the Commission, see “First Wildland Fire Commission report focuses on aviation” in Wildfire Today.)

As Gould observed in an interview with Wildfire Today/Fire Aviation, the initiative for founding the UAFA preceded the Wildland Fire Commission – so board members were able to meet with the commission and “were gratified to see that some of the points we discussed made it in to the report,” even though the UAFA was still in its founding phase.

“It’s the right time, right place” for the industry to come together, Gould said. While many of the members have met individually in the past with members of Congress and the US Forest Service and related agencies to share their perspectives, they were often asked “what does the industry think? We see the advantages of speaking as a single voice, a unified voice. We realized that within our individual companies we have an expertise and experience yet there’s nobody that really speaks for our industry, to get the messages to our customers and to the Hill.”

UAFA has opened an office in Washington, D.C., and is planning to hire an executive director this spring. One of their first charges will be “to discuss what our organization can do. The breadth of experience you find in UAFA reaches back into into 20, 30 years of experience and innovation. And innovation comes in a lot of forms, so the challenge is how do you integrate it into fire … with the association, we bring experience across all aspects of innovation, safety and standards.”

Founding UAFA board members include:

President: John Gould, 10Tanker
Vice President: Bart Brainerd, Firehawk Helicopters
Secretary/Treasurer: Brett L’Esperance, Dauntless Air
Director: Tim Sheehy, Bridger Aerospace
Director: Jennifer Draughon, Neptune Aviation Services

For more information about the UAFA, visit UAFA.org or email me********@ua**.org.

In Europe, balancing firefighting and war fighting

Bill Gabbert8. October 20228. October 2022Contracting, Fixed wing, Helicoptersclimate change, Europe, European Union3 Comments

This article was first published at Wildfire Today

Climate change, increasing wildfires, and Russia’s war in Ukraine are combining to put unusual stresses on governments, especially in Europe. When wildfires become numerous or very large, threatening large numbers of residents, many countries will mobilize military units. They may use helicopters to drop water or transport firefighters or trucks to assist with logistics. The United States has eight Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS) that can be quickly loaded into military C-130s to drop retardant on fires. Soldiers on the ground can be transformed from warfighters to firefighters.

This year was the hottest summer on record in Europe. It followed what what is now the second hottest summer on the continent. During the worst drought in centuries wildfires burned about 50 percent more acres than the previous record set in 2017.

The Washington Post has an article about how the war is affecting countries in Europe, in this case Slovenia, that need to both fight wildfires as the climate changes and bolster the military as international tensions mount.

“There will be these disasters of fires or floods. It will be more and more common,” Defense Minister Marjan Šarec said in an interview. “We must spend our money for everything that is needed. Because safety has no price.”
“It’s not a dilemma of cannons or butter,” said Šarec, who has also been a volunteer firefighter. “As a serious country we must do both.”
But military leaders say the dual-headed challenge can sometimes be significant, and even contradictory.
“Our training is going on in a military way. Exercises. How to use military equipment, how to fight, how to protect. How to defend,” said Glavaš, the head of Slovenia’s military command. “When you stop this training and you go to civilian tasks you need to focus your mind from fighting to something else. It’s very hard sometimes.”
He said that fighting fires “definitely” had an impact on combat readiness.

Currently the European Union coordinates and funds the deployment of 12 fixed wing firefighting airplanes and one helicopter pooled by EU countries. Fire Aviation reported in July that the EU plans to purchase additional air tankers.

The European Commission issued a press release on Oct. 5, 2022 confirming they are proposing to spend €170 million from the EU budget to reinforce its rescEU ground and aerial assets in the summer of 2023. The rescEU transitional fleet would then have a total of 22 planes, 4 helicopters as well as more pre-positioned ground teams. Beginning in 2025, the fleet would be further reinforced through an accelerated procurement of airplanes and helicopters.

The Washington Post reported that Slovenian defense leaders decided this month to cancel a $343 million purchase of armored troop carriers as they contemplate buying more aircraft that could be used to fight fires.

Gérald Moussa Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, said recently, “We want to increase the number of Canadair [water scooping air tankers] in our own fleet from twelve to sixteen. But the problem is not to buy them, it is to produce them. Today there are no longer any factories that do so.”

The CL-415 water scooping air tanker has been out of production for years, but De Havilland, which now owns the rights to the aircraft, announced on September 21 the planned construction of a huge aircraft manufacturing facility east of Calgary, Alberta. They expect to employ 1,500 workers to produce at least three lines of aircraft — DHC-515 (a modernized variant of the CL-415), DHC-6 Twin Otter, and Dash 8-400 (Q400).

An announcement from De Havilland said, “European customers have signed letters of intent to purchase the first 22 aircraft pending the positive outcome of government-to-government negotiations through the Government of Canada’s contracting agency, the Canadian Commercial Corporation. De Havilland Canada expects first deliveries of the DHC-515 [water scooping air tanker] by the middle of the decade, with deliveries of additional aircraft to begin at the end of the decade, providing other customers the opportunity to renew existing fleets or proceed with new acquisition opportunities at that time.”

In the near term it does not seem likely that European countries are going to be able to find and purchase dozens of purpose-built air tankers to meet their needs.

Before this year many of the firefighting aircraft typically used in Western Europe and the Middle East during the summer were contracted from Russia. With the war and sanctions that source has virtually dried up.

The Helicopter Investor reported that in April the Portuguese government expelled a team of Russian mechanics working on three of their Russian made Kamov helicopters, and shut down the hangar in Ponte de Sor where the maintenance crew was working. In 2006 the government spent €348 million to buy six Kamov Ka-32A helicopters which could transport personnel and drop water, but over the last 10 years have had difficulty keeping them airworthy. In January none of the six were operational.

The Portuguese Air Force has signed an agreement to purchase six Blackhawk helicopters outfitted for fighting wildfires. The aircraft will be supplied by Arista Aviation Services, a US-based firm which specializes in modernizing surplus US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Delivery of the first two is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.

For a number of years Erickson Inc. has contracted their firefighting Air-Crane helicopters to European governments. In 2021 Columbia Helicopters had Columbia Model 234 Chinook’s on contract in Turkey. Single engine air tankers regularly make the migration between South America and Europe as the fire season switches hemispheres.

🇺🇸#ColumbiaHelicopters “Columbia Model 234 #Chinook” #AerialFirefighting 🚁s has become operational in 🇹🇷#Turkey via partnership with #CMCSavunma to strength General Directorate of Forestry aerial firefighting capabilities. #IstanbulAirport @gazetesozcu #Turkish pic.twitter.com/tKuRDZ990L
— DefenceGEO (@DefenceGeo) July 18, 2021

Meeting the new USFS requirements for data monitoring and communications on helicopters

Bill Gabbert27. September 2022Contracting, Helicopterscontract3 Comments

Helicopter 729 drops on a fire near El Cajon, CA May 13, 2022. Ryan Grothe.

The US Forest Service recently released new requirements for firefighting helicopters on their Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC). It requires real-time communications, automatic flight following, and ATU bucket drop data, together with cockpit audio recording and Flight Data Monitoring (FDM).

Three companies have combined their expertise to build a system that meets the requirements without overburdening aircraft and budgets, according to a press release issued by GPMS, Blue Sky Network, and Flightcell.

Below are excerpts:

Today, GPMS International, Flightcell, and Blue Sky Network jointly announced a combined solution featuring their industry-leading technologies that creates a fully compliant, lightweight, cost-efficient option for operators looking to bid on the recently released U.S. Forest Service Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) firefighting contract.

Executives from the companies explained that many operators are having difficulty finding workable solutions to satisfy the new requirements in the USFS contract. By pairing Flightcell’s and Blue Sky Network’s enabled communications, flight following, Additional Telemetry Unit (ATU), and cockpit audio recording with GPMS’s advanced Health and Usage Monitoring System, the combined package meets new USFS requirements including the “modern aircraft” specification for HUMS.

“After many discussions during the HAI Firefighting and Aerial Firefighting shows, operators told us that they are looking for a solution to meet the new USFS requirements without overburdening their aircraft with additional weight or complexity or stacking single system costs onto their budgets,” said Todd Powers, GPMS VP of Sales. “What we have created here with Flightcell and Blue Sky Network is a lightweight, economically efficient solution to bring aircraft into compliance and allow operators to compete for this new contract.”

It puts Flightcell’s DZMx Plus and Smarthub cockpit audio visual recording onboard and, using Blue Sky Network’s connectivity service and SkyRouter™ fleet management platform, data is ported via a dual Satellite/LTE modem, where operators get comms, ATU data, and flight following in real-time together with downloadable audio/video recording.

Completing the solution, GPMS’s Foresight MX system provides the in-depth flight and machine monitoring that are part of the MATOC’s modern aircraft requirements for HUMS. Foresight provides engine and airframe vibration monitoring, engine performance monitoring and cycle counting, flight data monitoring with exceedance alerting, as well as rotor track and balance monitoring and adjustment solutions.

More information.

New CAL FIRE Director said they may bring on up to 10 more helicopters

Bill Gabbert23. March 2022Contracting, Fixed wing, Helicopters, LegislationC-130, CAL FIRE, California, Joe Tyler5 Comments

Joe Tyler, in his first interview since becoming Director March 4

In his first interview since he started as the new Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Joe Tyler told Fire Aviation on Wednesday that the state of California may have up to 10 additional firefighting helicopters in 2022 to assist firefighters on the ground.

Director Tyler said the current approved budget enables CAL FIRE to issue 120-day exclusive use contracts, based on fire potential, for up to three large air tankers, eight Type 1 helicopters, two Type 2 helicopters, and two lead planes. That budget authority lasts until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2022 and the Director’s staff is working on implementing the option now. The Governor’s proposed budget for the following fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022 includes exclusive use contract funding over the next three years for 10 Type 1 helicopters, but that budget has not yet been passed by the legislature.

CAL FIRE also has access to a San Diego County Type one helicopter through a cooperative agreement.

These numbers are in addition to the 10 helicopters already operated by CAL FIRE.

Director Tyler told Fire Aviation that he was offered the Director position on March 3 and he started the next day. He is overseeing an appropriated budget of $3.7 billion and more than 9,600 civilian and uniformed staff who responded to more than half a million emergencies in 2021. His predecessor, Thom Porter, retired in December.

CAL FIRE Director Joe Tyler making the keynote address at the Aerial Firefighting conference in San Diego, March 22, 2022. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

Director Tyler is a 31-year veteran of CAL FIRE and most recently served as the Deputy Director of Fire Protection, overseeing statewide fire protection operations and cooperative fire protection. He began his career with CAL FIRE in 1991 working in several counties and programs throughout California and has an extensive background in executive level operations and programs. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Director, Tyler served as the Assistant Deputy Director of Fire Protection with oversight of law enforcement/civil cost recovery, fire protection operations, aviation management, tactical air operations, and mobile equipment.

“It is my commitment to take care of our people,” Director Tyler said in the interview Wednesday. “The health and wellness of the people who work for us are of utmost importance. As I have said to our people, they are our greatest asset.”

Director Tyler said the incorporation of the seven former Coast Guard C-130 aircraft into the state’s air tanker fleet might be pushed back to 2024 due the pandemic/endemic and supply chain issues. This is in spite of the agency’s efforts in attempting to facilitate movement in the project. He said they had hoped to see some of the C-130s flying on fires this year. CAL FIRE is working with the Coast Guard, the Air Force, and the contractor who will install the retardant delivery system, Coulson Aviation.

“We have working groups that meet weekly between those groups to determine where we are at in status and we have executive steering committees that meet quarterly,” the Director said. “The last update that was just given to us in this last month, was that Coulson Aviation working with the United States Air Force and their engineers were going through the preliminary design review of the retardant delivery system and things were looking good to be able to continue to move forward.”