Aerial firefighters feel the burn

22 March 2022

USA – In the middle of January, when California typically counts on some relief from hot temperatures and prepares for the coming fire season, more than 400 firefighters were battling a 700-acre blaze on the Big Sur coast.

A common refrain from government officials dealing with massive wildfires is that wildland fires are becoming larger, and what was once a seasonal concern is now stretching into a year-long effort to quench flames — all as a result of a warming climate.

The 2021 wildfire season set several records. In the United States, 58,000 fires burned more than 7 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Two million acres of Europe burned, while 10 million acres of Canada was charred.

But in the U.S., there is another reason that agencies and helicopter operators could be forgiven for feeling like the 2021 fire season never ended. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) missed its own deadline for issuing aerial firefighting contracts for the 2022 wildfire season, opting instead to extend its existing contracts with aircraft operators.

In a Dec. 13 solicitation, the USFS said it “determined there is not enough time for an adequate response from industry, a complete evaluation by the government, and ultimately timely award prior to the start of 2022 mandatory availability periods.”

To ensure there are enough helicopters to cover the ever-lengthening fire season, the Forest Service instead will extend existing contracts to later in the year. The agency intends to issue basic ordering agreements for 38 type 1 helicopters with 120-day mandatory availability periods. Six-month exclusive use (EU) contracts will be available for 34 type 2 helicopters with contracts that expire in 2022. EUs will also be issued for type 3 helicopters with contracts expiring this year.

“The USFS will continue to review and refine the multiple award task order contract (MATOC) solicitation,” the USFS notice continued. “The USFS intends to make parent awards Summer/Fall 2022, with task orders being competed/awarded after parent awards.”

A long process

There are several steps involved to solicit, evaluate, and award aviation contracts to ensure these critical resources meet the needs of the Forest Service. These can take as long as 18 months. Vendors also need time to configure their aircraft to adhere to any new or revised contract specifications, a spokesperson for the agency told Vertical in an email.

“Due to supply issues because of Covid and other factors outside of the Forest Service’s control, some items needed by vendors can be on back order, thus allowing the extra time needed for configuration and implementation,” the Forest Service said. Therefore, the agency “will be extending current type 2 and type 3 exclusive use helicopter contracts where feasible.”

The agency expects the helicopter MATOC to be awarded by late summer, and plans to use this same ordering process for the 2023 season. A parent award will establish the basic indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract that each successful offeror will be awarded. Task orders will then be competed amongst the contract holders for both exclusive use and call-when-needed contracts under the parent award.

Conner Heinbuch, accounts manager at Guardian Mobility, which supplies electronic equipment to aerial firefighting operators, said the missed deadlines could simply be a case of the Forest Service “biting off more than they could chew.”

“They tried to add in and change the contracts so significantly, during so much pushback from the operators in the different companies that are bidding on these contracts, every single deadline that they had, they’ve completely missed,” he said.

Heinbuch said the Forest Service was planning on letting support service contracts around Christmas, but then scrapped those plans before extending the deadline at least into the summer.

“Then they said that they’re not doing it at all,” Heinbuch said. “So, I think it really comes back to the fact they bit off more than they could chew. They weren’t able to push it through for Covid. And then now, they’re just not able to meet that deadline. They say, ‘We need these support services, we need to have contracts available so that we can actually fight these fires.’ That’s the way that it was explained to me by the contract officer — the contract will stay the same. And then they’re looking to have, close to the end of summertime/fall time . . . the new contract for all the new services that they’re trying to put in.”

Another issue is the introduction of new equipment requirements, like the introduction of additional telemetry units (ATU) for aerial firefighting. Stephane Momy, Guardian Mobility’s chief operating officer, said ATU requirements are relatively inexpensive ways to introduce more accountability and efficiency into aerial firefighting. It follows other requirements, such as the introduction in 2005 of automated flight following (AFF) by the Forest Service. Government agencies originally introduced and mandated AFF for primary operator firefighting contracts, but it has since spread into other jurisdictions and applications. All these changes, along with disruptions to operations and training resulting from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, have affected the scheduling of contract awards, he said.

“I think I can attribute it to several different factors — Covid is one,” Momy said in an interview. “Most things are getting a lot of feedback on the proposal and the fact that the fire season has been extended last year. And I think it’s not just one of those items . . . those things are all contributing factors to the delay.

“I think there’s a pivotal point in terms of decision making on the government, and I don’t want to say it’s any different than any other year, but we are going into more liability and more accountability, with the digitalization of everything,” Momy continued. “But there’s significant major steps to take to do that. I think what they’re doing is just basically getting modern, or extending their existing contracts with these additional capabilities.”

Cost concerns

On top of all the pressures on aerial firefighting, operators are continually asked to do more, with more modern equipment, within often flat government budgets, said Brittany Black, senior vice president of strategy at Erickson, keeper of the mighty S-64 Air Crane heavylift helicopter.

Black laments the trend by agencies like the USFS toward lowest price technically acceptable contracts, instead of the traditional “best value” deals.

“Although fire agencies want next-generation tools, there isn’t any funding to support advanced technologies or their adoption,” Black wrote in a LinkedIn post about LPTA contracts. “All told, most agencies are left with the challenge of responding to more fires annually but with the same budget allotment. We see this trend locally, nationally, and globally.”

In an interview with Vertical, Black was careful not to blame government agencies for failing to fund firefighting operations at levels that promote modernization and innovation.

“This is definitely not an agency kind of issue,” Black said. “We know that the agencies are trying their hardest to do what they can with what they have. It’s really a funding issue.

“They’re just looking for you to set a baseline and then you have the lowest price,” she added. “And that doesn’t necessarily help operators who have been in the business for a long time, operators who are trying to potentially use their profit to innovate or to bring the next-generation technology that, you never know, could be the one thing that puts out wildfires.”

Black said firefighting missions are technical and expensive. “When you’re doing these types of missions that are pretty technical, you train more, it costs more money. And when each year the requirement is to get more with the same budget or less budget . . . how do you do that as an agency?”

The answer, which the Forest Service said was closely analyzed for potential impacts, are LPTA contracts.

“The potential impacts of LPTA were analyzed by the National Helicopter Program, the Fire and Aviation Senior Program Manager, Incident Procurement Services staff of Property and Procurement Services, the USDA Office of General Counsel, and the USDA Senior Procurement Executive,” the USFS spokesperson said in the emailed statement to Vertical.

“The Forest Service believes the MATOC in its current form using LPTA will not significantly reduce the ability of the Forest Service to provide highly capable, reliable, professional aerial fire suppression helicopters to the firefighters on the ground. The Forest Service believes that use of the categories in each of the types will improve helicopter performance and safety, and will enable the agency to contract for much needed modern helicopters to improve the safety margins for passenger transport, rappel, short-haul, and aerial ignition missions.”

Black contends that in the current environment, where the supply of helictopters to fight fires is outstripped by demand, some operators could be forced to reconfigure their aircraft for other, more profitable missions.

“Eventually, some operators could potentially be forced out. If the firefighting margins become too low for small operators, they’re just going to go somewhere else — and we’re already in an environment where there are never enough helicopters. So, if the reason that there’s not enough is because of the pricing element… well, what happens when everybody reconfigures and goes and does something else?”

22. March 2022/by GFMCadmin