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.
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).
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.
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.
The US Forest Service has activated seven air tankers on call when needed (CWN) contracts to join the 15 large air tankers that were already mobilized on exclusive use (EU) contracts.
Six of the seven CWNs are water scoopers, CL-415s and CL-415EAFs, operated by Bridger Aerospace and Aero Flite. While the FS calls it a CWN activation, four of the scoopers are on a 120-mandatory availability (MAP) arrangement while the other two are day to day.
The seventh ship on CWN is a 10 Tanker DC-10, on a 120-day MAP.
There are still three large air tankers with EU contracts that will start later this month, an RJ85, an MD87, and a Coulson aircraft to be named later, probably a 737 or C-130. This will bring the number of EU large air tankers up to 18.
The contract awards for CWN scoopers, announced by the FS on May 19, 2021, went to three companies, Aero Flite, Air Spray, and Bridger Air Tanker.
Air tanker requests filled, canceled, and unfilled
Last year 19 percent of the requests for air tankers were unable to be filled (UTF) and 22 percent were cancelled; 59 percent were filled.
Sometimes an Incident Commander’s request for an air tanker gets cancelled because the situation suddenly changed and the need no longer exists. But often, we have been told, the Geographic Area Coordination Centers tell the ordering point to cancel a request that they can’t fill. In those cases, what is actually a UTF is changed to a canceled request.
If we look at just the UTFs and canceled on a bar chart, it looks like this:
Last year 1,858 (40 percent) of the orders for hand crews were unfilled, and 1,853 (29 percent) of orders for engines were unfilled. In addition, the number of cancelled orders were 32 percent of crew orders and 22 percent of engine orders. There can be multiple reasons why orders are cancelled, but they can include the order sat unfilled and the requesting unit gave up, or finally the need no longer existed. The number of orders actually filled in 2021 were 27 percent for crews and 49 percent for engines.
It conceivable that if the true numbers of UTF requests were tracked, it would easily justify an increase in numbers of resources — crews, engines, air tankers, and helicopters.
It wasn’t that many years ago that Australia rarely if ever used large air tankers to assist “fireys” on the ground who were suppressing bushfires. But today their one and only large air tanker is flying across the Pacific to assist firefighters in the United States who are spread thin battling 61 large wildfires across several western states.
Bomber 210 (N138CG) has refueled in Hawaii and is on it’s last leg before landing in the United States. It is expected to be deployed for 45 days.
When it arrives, Coulson will prepare the aircraft for operations within the US, which may take a few days.
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service purchased the 737 air tanker from Coulson Aviation in May of 2019 after using one on a contract basis during the 2018-2019 summer bushfire season.
In addition to the Boeing 737 Fireliner, NSW purchased two Cessna Citation V Lead/Intelligence Aircraft in 2019. All of the aircraft were accompanied by a ten-year operational contract for Coulson to provide all flight and maintenance personnel.
The five federal land management agencies have 201 aircraft on exclusive use contract this year for assisting wildland firefighters, according to the information we received from spokespersons for the agencies.
In 2016 the FS hired 34 Type 1 helicopters on EU contracts but starting in 2017 reduced the number to 28. The fleet remained at that level until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 when they added an additional 22 ships for a total of 50. The agency felt the “surge” helicopters were necessary to mitigate a possible decrease in the effectiveness or numbers of their ground forces — engines and hand crews. In addition, the federal land management agencies said last year they were going to limit the number of less-than-full-suppression fires and attack new ignitions aggressively.
This year there will be 20 Type 1 helicopters on surge contracts, for a total of 48. These are the largest-capacity helicopters used for firefighting, capable of carrying 700 to 3,000 gallons of water.
Over the last 10 years the average number of large multi-engine air tankers (LAT) on exclusive use (EU) US Forest Service contracts was 14.0 for the United States. The average number on EU contracts from 2000 through 2009 was 28.3. This year there are 18, which is 5 more than last year.
Due to the pandemic last year the FS gave about seven companies hybrid surge Call When Needed (CWN) LAT contracts that were basically EU, but for 90 days, rather than the typical 160-day EU Mandatory Availability Period. The rates they negotiated were generally less than the typically high CWN rates. For a while they also activated four additional LATs on a true CWN basis, with no guarantee of days worked.
This year there are 18 LATs on EU contracts and 8 more could come on later on surge contracts, with an additional 8 possible, the FS says, on CWN contracts.
As of June 9 there were 17 LATs actively working on EU contracts, one scheduled to begin its EU contract on June 20, and one CWN that was activated June 9.
All of the LATs and Very Large Air Tankers on EU contracts can hold up to 3,000 gallons of retardant, except for Coulson’s C-130 (4,000) and the 10 Tanker DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker (9,400).
In addition to the LATs and Type 1 helicopters, this year the additional aircraft on EU contracts among all the Federal wildland firefighting agencies include:
43 Type 2 helicopters (smaller than Type 1 helicopters)
41 Single Engine Air Tankers
0 Multi-engine scooping air tankers
26 Air Tactical fixed wing
27 Aerial Supervision fixed wing
14 Smokejumper fixed wing
2 Infrared mapping fixed wing
1 Large passenger aircraft (typically a 737)
The Federal government also has the ability to activate up to eight military C-130 aircraft equipped with 3,000-gallon Modular FireFighting Systems (MAFFS) if additional LATs are needed. The Governors of the four states in which they are based may also activate the two within their state.
Brings the total up to on 18 exclusive use contracts
The U.S. Forest Service announced on October 27 they intend to sign contracts with three companies to add five Next Generation large air tankers (LATs) to its fleet of firefighting fixed wing aircraft. If everything goes as they hope, the FS would have 18 LATs on exclusive use (EU) contracts beginning in 2021.
This contracting process for what the FS calls Next Generation 3.0 began November 19, 2018. The first attempt to award the five LAT contracts on March 26, 2020 was protested, so now seven months later they are trying again. The vendors who did not receive these new contracts will be debriefed, allowing them to ask why they were not selected. Then, if no additional protests are filed within 10 days of the October 27 announcement, actual contracts can be signed with the three contract recipients.
The companies selected for this Next Generation 3.0 contract:
Coulson Aviation: one B-737, Tanker #137.
Aero Flite: two RJ85s.
Erickson Aero Tanker: two MD-87s, two of these three: Tankers 102, 103, or 107
The companies will be given only a one year guaranteed contract, with the possibility of up to four more years at the discretion of the FS.
In a press release the FS claimed to have “met its goal to convert to a fully Next Generation Airtanker fleet with up to 35 airtankers .” The simple math is, there are 13 now on EU contracts, so adding five brings it up to 18. They can bring on additional LATs on Call When Needed arrangements if they are available, but in 2017 the average daily rate for large federal CWN air tankers was 54 percent higher than aircraft on EU contracts. During this COVID year when the FS needed to boost the number of LATs, they gave about seven companies hybrid CWN contracts for a total of 11 LATs that were basically EU, but for 90 days, rather than the typical 160-day EU Mandatory Availability Period. The rates they negotiated were generally less than the typical CWN rates. For a while they also activated four additional LATs on a true CWN basis, with no guarantee of days worked.
In addition to temporarily adding to the fleet by using CWN aircraft, the FS can under certain conditions use up to eight military C-130 aircraft that have been outfitted with a slip-in 3,000-gallon retardant tank, a Modular FireFighting System (MAFFS). A few more tankers have been borrowed from Canada, for example Convair 580s, Tanker 471 manufactured in 1958, and Tanker 474 manufactured in 1955.
Our opinion
The last year for the six air tankers on the Next Gen 1.0 contract will be 2022, according to my calculations. Since it takes the FS about two years to award an LAT contract, the agency should begin the process for Next Gen 4.0 immediately. If they don’t get it done, there will only be 12 LATs on EU contracts.
Next Gen 1.0 and Next Gen 2.0 were for five guaranteed years with up to five more at the discretion of the FS. The trend of the FS only issuing one year guaranteed contracts is disturbing. Last week in an interview with Fire Aviation, Dan Snyder, Senior Vice-President of Neptune Aviation, was asked about the one-year contracts:
“If that becomes the new USFS contacting model, I believe it will create a barrier to entry for other vendors due to the risks involved,” Mr. Snyder said. “It will also make long-term planning for aircraft acquisition, maintenance, training and hiring of staff, difficult even for the established vendors in aerial firefighting.”
If multiple large air tankers and helicopters could attack new fires within 20 to 30 minutes we would have fewer huge fires.
Fighting wildfires is a Homeland Security issue
The US Navy has 11 large nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that cost $13 billion to build — each with about 80 fighter jets.
Protecting our citizens and forests from wildfires is more important than sending our soldiers and trillions of dollars to fight wars in places that many people could not find on a map. Suppressing wildfires and managing federal forests to reduce the threat to our citizens is a Homeland Security issue and should be adequately funded. Firefighters need to be paid a living wage. You can’t fight fires on the cheap.
50 Type 1 Helicopters
Several years ago the largest helicopters on EU contracts, Type 1, were cut from 34 to 28. This number needs to be increased to 50.
40 Large Air Tankers
Congress needs to appropriate enough funding to have 40 large air tankers on exclusive use 10-year guaranteed contracts.
We often say, “air tankers don’t put out fires”. Under ideal conditions they can slow the spread which allows firefighters on the ground the opportunity to move in and suppress the fire in that area. If firefighters are not nearby, in most cases the flames will eventually burn through or around the retardant. During these unprecedented circumstances brought on by the pandemic, we rely more on aerial firefighting than in the past. And there must be an adequate number of firefighters available to supplement the work done from the air. It must go both ways. Firefighters in the air and on the ground supporting each other.
In the last week the U.S. Forest Service has added two air tankers to the roster of Call When Needed (CWN) activations, to bring the total up to 15. With the 13 air tankers on Exclusive Use (EU) arrangements, there are now 28 working on USFS contracts. Five of them are Very Large Air Tankers (VLAT) — four DC-10s and one 747. With the two military C-130 MAFFS aircraft that have been mobilized, the grand total is 30.
The last two brought are VLATs — T-911 (a DC-10) and T-944 (a Boeing 747). They had both worked CWN with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for a short time until August 5 when they moved over to the USFS on a CWN contract.
Here is the list of CWN air tankers currently working for the USFS:
Having access to 30 large air tankers (LAT) and VLATs enables more routine use of the concept of quickly attacking new fires with overwhelming force from both the ground and the air. This is an approach that can be useful anytime, except during strong winds, to reduce the number of new fires that grow to become large. But, firefighters on the ground have to be available to move in quickly to take advantage of the temporary slowing of the fire’s spread. With the federal agencies having firefighter recruitment and retention issues, this second part of the equation is not always a given.
This concept is especially valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic when fire personnel are adapting to the situation with new procedures that can reduce their threat of infection, but may also reduce to a certain extent their total daily production on the fireline. Fewer large fires can also mean less toxic smoke that can exacerbate respiratory issues suffered by COVID patients.
The last time this many large air tankers were mobilized on long-term or medium length contracts was in 2003
The U.S. Forest Service has a total of 28 large air tankers actively working on their roster. The fire year started with 13 on 160-day Exclusive Use (EU) contracts. In May and June another 11 were added with 90-day contracts, then a few days ago two more came on with a “to be determined” end date. With the two National Guard C-130 MAFFS aircraft that were added today, the grand total is 28.
This is a breathtaking change from how the USFS has been managing the large air tanker program during the last 17 years. The last time there were this many available on medium to long term contracts to assist firefighters in the initial attack of new wildfires was in the early 2000s. In 2004 there were 27 on EU contracts. In 2003 there were 34, and 44 in 2002. It is common for the USFS to bring on additional Call When Needed aircraft for an unscheduled period lasting from days to weeks but most of these aircraft this year are working for a guaranteed 90 or 160 days.
Here is the breakdown with the number of aircraft by air tanker companies, as of July 22, 2020:
Nine; Neptune Aviation, BAe-146.
Six; Aero Flite, RJ85.
Six; Erickson Aero Air, MD-87.
Three; 10 Tanker Air Carrier, DC-10.
Two; Coulson Aviation, one C-130Q and one B-737.
Two; California National Guard, C-130 MAFFS. (not on USFS contract)
Most of the aircraft are certified to carry up to 3,000 gallons. The exceptions: Coulson’s two aircraft can carry 4,000, and the DC-10s are approved for 9,400.
When writing about the number of air tankers available, we often include the disclaimer that aircraft do not put out fires. But under ideal conditions they can slow the spread of a fire long enough to allow firefighters on the ground enough time to move in and contain the spread of that section of the fire perimeter. If firefighters are not available to take advantage of the temporary slowing, fires can sometimes burn through or around the retardant or water that was dropped. During strong winds all bets are off. Nothing can stop a fire when the wind is howling and there is plenty of dry fuel available.
I have written before:
Rapid initial attack with overwhelming force using both ground and air resources, arriving within the first 10 to 30 minutes when possible can reduce the number of megafires.
If fires are suppressed while small, it can prevent the very large fires that can go on for weeks or months, requiring many more firefighters and aircraft to put themselves at risk for a much longer period of time than quickly hitting a fire hard during the first burning period.
Kudos to the U.S. Forest Service and the other agencies that employ firefighters for their emphasis this year on aggressively attacking new fires. The expressed reason is the conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Firefighters, to a certain extent, are slowed by some of the new safety precautions necessary to deal with the virus. In addition, reducing the amount of wood smoke in the air can cut down on the adverse impacts to patients with breathing difficulties. Preliminary evidence suggests exposure to wildfire smoke may increase susceptibility to COVID-19.
We can hope that after the United States finally gets a handle on COVID, the agencies will have developed some muscle memory about how to reduce the number of new fires that turn into megafires.