Air Spray’s Air Tanker 170 made retardant drops during a grid test at Fox Field in California in September, 2018 but does not have a contract with the U.S. Forest Service. Screen shot from VMC Aviation video.Two Senators and one Representative sent a letter to Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen yesterday urging the agency to award the Call When Needed contract for Large and Very Large Air Tankers that was first advertised May 30, 2018, which was 476 days ago.
On August 12 we asked Kaari Carpenter, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, “When will the CWN contract be awarded?” She said, “We expect an award on this contract very soon.”
It took the Forest Service 555 days to award the first next-generation air tanker contract in 2013.
6 Comments
Why does this take so long to award?
Perhaps the OIG needs to audit the USFS CWN contracting process. The 2017 report below was not encouraging.
https://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/08099-0001-12.pdf
Why hasn’t NG3.0 been awarded?
Why why why.
Because USFS F and A management is completely inept!
Thats why. Even they’re own pilots think so.
Well maybe it’s time to drain that bureaucratic swamp.
It’s probably because of potential cost and the perception of not needing to be prepared.
Still waiting? Any new info? Heck it’s already nearly 2020!
Comments are closed for this article!