Bold action is needed now to secure the future of the US aerial firefighting fleet
To help protect Americans from the intensifying wildfire threat, lawmakers must address outdated policies that are limiting the safety, effectiveness and reliability of the nation’s firefighting fleet
We have reached an inflection point in the US wildfire environment.
In the last four out of five years, wildfires have caused record-breaking levels of destruction in US communities and in particular across Western States. Experts predict that the situation will get far worse before it gets better. With urgency, the US must act on this information and take bold action now to bolster the country’s at-risk aerial firefighting fleet and ensure that safe, reliable and effective aircraft are available to protect Americans well into the future.
At Dauntless Air, we have been helping Federal and State agencies fight wildfires from the air for more than 25 years. With this history and perspective, we know that without intervention the US aerial firefighting fleet will be unable to match the ferocity of the growing wildfire threat in the years to come. This is because Federal policies are in place that are preventing aerial firefighting operators from growing and improving their fleets, even as wildfires intensify. These policies now pose a significant threat to public safety, as a dwindling number of firefighting planes and helicopters are responsible for protecting communities from an increasing number of intense wildfires.
US lawmakers can help fix this problem by addressing policies leftover from the earliest days of aerial firefighting. Originally well-intentioned and effective, today these policies–specifically, Small Business Association (SBA) protections–are preventing growth, innovation and improvement in aerial firefighting. They must be removed.
Protections built for a different era of wildfires
To understand the SBA protections and their impact today, we have to go back to the earliest days of US aerial firefighting, when wildfire seasons were shorter and less intense. At that time, most aerial firefighting resources were surplus military aircraft or agricultural spraying aircraft that had been converted to fight wildfires for only a small portion of the year. These planes were operated by farmers and small business owners that made a significant investment to convert their aircraft for firefighting.
To increase the chances that these small operations could make their investments worthwhile and win government contracts, the SBA created carve-outs that limit the size that an aerial firefighting company can be in order to bid on and retain Federal contracts. This action was important in those earliest days because the SBA protections helped encourage farmers and small operators to enter the industry and outfit their planes for firefighting. This in turn kickstarted the nation’s fledgling aerial firefighting fleet and secured more wildfire protection for communities in harm’s way.
Fast forward to 2022 and these SBA carve-outs are creating an opposite effect. Today, they are forcing aerial firefighting operators to not invest in their fleets, and instead intentionally stay small, by SBA standards, in order to be eligible to win contracts from the Federal government. This means that at a time when the nation is facing unprecedented wildfire activity and destruction, operators are being perversely incented to not invest in and grow their fleets to match today’s challenge.
As the wildfire threat evolves, aerial firefighting operators are working hard to evolve ahead of it, but SBA carve-outs are hampering their efforts to grow and innovate.
A turning point looms for many operators
A large number of aerial firefighting operators working on US Federal contracts today founded their operations in the 1990s and are now nearing retirement age and trying to sell or attract significant financing into their business. These businesses have grown from small operations in the 1990s into larger, more sophisticated companies that today require advanced business management skills to successfully operate.
Innovative investors and capital providers trying to modernize and grow the US aerial firefighting fleet, so it can respond effectively to the worsening environment, want to create a sound exit or financing for retiring operators, but are unable to do so under current SBA protections and federal contracting structures leftover from decades ago. Here’s what’s happening:
Investors or buyers that are qualified to buy an aerial firefighting company from a retiring or exiting owner must be sophisticated enough to possess the skills and significant financing needed to buy and effectively run a large company. However, prospective buyers and investors that possess these skills and resources are more often than not defined as “Large” (not “Small”) by the SBA.
A “Large” buyer or investor cannot risk the purchase/investment because once the aerial firefighting business is under the ownership of a “Large” company, the Federal contracts that had supported the operator over the years would suddenly be in jeopardy, putting the future of the acquired company at risk.
This untenable risk-reward equation created by the SBA size limitations immediately disqualifies otherwise qualified buyers and investors. Without qualified buyers and investors, retiring operators and other aerial firefighters looking to sell their company will be forced to do one of three things that contribute to the overall decline of the nation’s firefighting fleet:
Take advantage of the growing demand for aerial firefighting assets worldwide by contracting with or selling their fleet to foreign governments and operators, which are not held down by SBA size limitations. There is proof of this happening now. US registered aerial firefighting assets will be put to work in Europe for the 2022 wildfire season. More aerial firefighting companies may follow suit should US policies and structures continue to negatively impact operators.
Operate their remaining fleet for as long as possible by continuing US aerial firefighting operations while investing as little as possible into their aircraft. Owners would be forced to do this until the fleet ages out and must be scrapped completely. When this happens, the safety and effectiveness of the US fleet decreases in the short-term and leads to a smaller overall fleet in the long-term.
Close their business entirely and sell their fleet into different industries in order to recoup the money that they invested into their company.
“Airpower is like Oxygen. When you have enough, you don’t have to think about it. When you don’t have enough, that’s all you can think about.”
An opportunity to improve US aerial firefighting
Faced with a worsening wildfire situation, aerial firefighting operators are trying to grow, update and improve their fleets; retiring operators are attempting to either sell their business to, or attract significant amounts of financing from, qualified buyers and investors; the industry is working diligently to bolster its resources and ensure safe, effective and reliable protection for every US community threatened by wildfires. SBA carve-outs, built for a different era, cannot be allowed to derail these efforts. Lawmakers must act now to remove these policies. If not, and the status quo continues, the nation will be unable to mount the response needed to protect communities from wildland fire in the years ahead, and a growing number of American lives will hang in the balance.
Dauntless Air is an aerial firefighting company deeply dedicated to protecting people, land and property from the devastation of wildfires. Armed with the largest and most technologically advanced Fire Boss fleet in North America, we support the removal of SBA carve-outs and federal contracting structures that are hampering innovation. While we await change at the Federal level, we continue to equip our aircraft with the latest advancements in aerial firefighting technology. Click here to learn more about the ways we’re enhancing the overall safety of our operations while helping our pilots and aircraft perform at the top of their ability.