Kentucky Airmotive, Inc.

Kentucky Airmotive, Inc., a for-profit small business headquartered in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, delivers aerial firefighting, fixed-wing aircraft operations, aircraft maintenance, and aviation logistics support to federal wildland fire management agencies as a prime contractor (97% of recent awards), competing predominantly under total small business set-aside designations on its primary contract vehicle and without set-asides on most task orders.

The company's federal footprint is concentrated and deep. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), a civilian agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, dominates the customer base, accounting for 125 awards valued at $60.5 million in combined potential value—87% of all awards by count and 45% of all potential value across the vendor's portfolio. This concentration reflects Kentucky Airmotive's role as a critical on-call provider of light fixed-wing aviation assets for federal wildland fire suppression. Secondary customers include the Department of the Interior's Interior Business Center ($31.8 million potential value on five awards, primarily the on-call aircraft rental blanket purchase agreement) and the Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Management and Budget ($22 million on a single award). A smaller stream of work flows through the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region, and—via subcontract—the Department of Defense through Lockheed Martin.

Kentucky Airmotive holds three primary contract vehicles anchoring its federal practice. The $44 million National Light Fixed Wing Services multiple-award IDIQ awarded by NIFC on January 1, 2024, and running through December 31, 2033, carries a total small business set-aside designation at the vehicle level and has generated 79 task orders valued at $8.3 million in combined potential value as of September 2026. Individual delivery orders under this IDIQ have ranged from $3,607 to $254,064.83, structured as firm fixed-price or fixed-price with economic price adjustment to accommodate fuel and other cost volatility. A second vehicle—a $9.98 million multiple-award blanket purchase agreement with the Department of the Interior's Interior Business Center for on-call fixed-wing aircraft rental through December 31, 2027—has supported Naval Sea Systems Command aircraft rental calls for USS Gerald R. Ford testing in Pascagoula, Mississippi, issued as total small business set-aside BPA calls. A third, legacy $4.8 million single-award IDIQ with NIFC for aviation services and equipment support ran through December 31, 2023, and has been succeeded by work under the primary 2024 IDIQ. Across all vehicles, delivery orders consistently carry ultimate completion dates aligned with calendar year 2026, reflecting cyclical demand corresponding to the peak wildfire management season.

Activity has remained stable and substantial: 23 awards in 2022, 36 in 2023, 23 in 2024, 35 in 2025, and 23 through September 2026. The combined potential value across all 177 awards in the source data stands at $135.6 million, though only $18.1 million (13% of potential value) has been obligated to date. Seventy awards carrying $6.7 million in combined potential value will reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure. Primary NAICS footprint centers on Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation (98 awards) and Nonscheduled Chartered Freight Air Transportation (52 awards); primary PSC coding reflects Natural Resources/Conservation—Forest-Range Fire Suppression/Presuppression (86 awards) and Natural Resources/Conservation—Other (48 awards).

Kentucky Airmotive performs substantially all work as a prime contractor. Subcontract activity is minimal (six sub-awards, 3% of all awards) and routed entirely through Lockheed Martin Corporation, where the vendor provides maintenance, repair, overhaul, and inspection activities for MH-47, MH-60, and A/MH-6 model aircraft, plus refueling and material disposition support under task orders carrying FUEL designations. This defense subcontract relationship represents a narrow stream relative to the core wildland fire management prime footprint and is not listed in recent awards.

All work is performed at Kentucky Airmotive's facility in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. The vendor has been registered in SAM since 2002 and maintains continuous federal contracting activity in support of the national wildland fire suppression infrastructure, with no apparent WOSB, EDWOSB, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, or other advanced SBA designation beyond small business status.