9Line LLC

9Line LLC, a veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small business based in Morgan, Utah, operates as a prime contractor providing specialized aviation pilot services for wildland firefighting and emergency response operations to the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The vendor competes on a full-and-open basis, with no set-aside designations across its recent award footprint, despite holding veteran-owned and SDVOSB designations.

9Line's entire award portfolio — 48 prime awards totaling $49.3 million in combined potential value — centers on a single customer. The National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 23 awards worth $49.2 million (100% of the vendor's meaningful revenue), with the remaining portfolio split between two small USDA Forest Service research and regional units carrying a combined $134 thousand. This extreme customer concentration anchors on a $12 million single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC 1202SA22T9701) awarded in January 2022 through January 2027 as a Total Small Business set-aside. Under that IDC, 9Line has issued 10 delivery orders totaling $33.5 million — the largest being an $8.6 million delivery order for FY26 pilot services awarded January 11, 2026, and a $9.29 million delivery order for 2025 pilot services awarded February 1, 2025. Other parent vehicles include three blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) carrying task orders valued at $135 thousand combined and an "Aviation Consulting Services" vehicle with 7 task orders worth $88 thousand.

The vendor's capability portfolio is narrowly defined: pilot services across fixed-wing aircraft including King Air 200/250/350 and SD3-60 Sherpa aircraft, with work encompassing smokejumper operations, initial attack firefighting support, large fire response, flight crew training, backcountry operations, and instructor pilot services for King Air aircraft. Performance occurs in Boise, Idaho; Morgan, Utah; and Ogden, Utah. Delivery orders are firm fixed-price with no subcontractor engagement — SCI data shows 0% sub-hours share across prime contracts, with 7.0 FTEs reported in FY2022 and no FTE activity captured in FY2023 or FY2024. SCI-reportable invoicing totaled $2.2 million in FY2022 alone; SCI coverage is limited to contracts above $150,000 and does not reflect the bulk of 9Line's aviation contract work, which appears concentrated in larger delivery orders outside the SCI reporting window.

Award activity has declined sharply: five awards in 2022 declining to one award in 2026. Within the next twenty-four months, two awards carrying combined potential value of $8.9 million face ultimate completion dates and therefore recompete exposure, creating near-term opportunity for NIFC to reconsider the vendor or extend existing task orders under the parent IDC. 9Line operates entirely as a prime contractor with no subcontractor relationships in the source data, delivering services directly rather than managing subcontractor teams.