Mountain Blade Runner LLC

Mountain Blade Runner LLC, a for-profit limited liability company headquartered in Montrose, Colorado, provides helicopter aviation services—aircraft, pilots, ground crews, equipment, and supplies—to federal land management agencies as a prime contractor across 177 awards totaling $283.8 million in combined potential value. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards) without subcontractor engagement, competing full-and-open across federal agencies without set-aside designations on most work, though it holds several Total Small Business set-aside indefinite delivery contracts.

Mountain Blade Runner's capability footprint centers on Type I, Type III, and Type IV helicopter support for wildland firefighting, search and rescue, wildlife monitoring, aerial ignition, law enforcement surveillance, and natural resource management. Recent representative work includes a $81,319.60 delivery order from the Department of the Interior Intermountain Region for Type 1 helicopter flight services supporting Rocky Mountain National Park trail repair flights in Estes Park, Colorado (June 2026, firm fixed price); a $655,620 delivery order from the Office of Policy Management and Budget for helicopter flight services in Elko, Nevada under a Total Small Business set-aside (May 2026); a $304,617.70 order from the U.S. Forest Service (Idaho Region) for helicopter fire suppression support under the Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025-2034 IDIQ (May 2026, no set-aside); and a $530,082.45 order from the Interior Business Center for Type III helicopter fire suppression operations in Sheridan, Wyoming under an On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022-2027 vehicle (January 2025, no set-aside).

Customer concentration is acute and skews to wildland fire management. The top five funding agencies account for 88% of recent awards by count. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center leads both volume and dollars (78 awards, $117.3 million combined potential value), anchored by a $50 million Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025-2034 IDIQ awarded January 1, 2025. The Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region places 49 awards ($60.6 million potential value) across multiple single-award and multiple-award Type III and Type I vehicles for exclusive-use and on-call helicopter operations in Rifle, Colorado; Elko and Panaca, Nevada; St. George, Utah; and Wickenburg, Arizona. The Interior Business Center (a Department of Interior Departmental Office) coordinates the $49.5 million On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022-2027 multiple-award IDIQ. The Office of Policy Management and Budget (also a DOI Departmental Office) has issued four awards valued at $46.5 million combined, all for helicopter flight services under Total Small Business set-asides. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service holds three awards ($2.5 million combined) for exclusive-use Type III helicopter services in Winnie, Texas.

Vehicle position is dominated by indefinite delivery contracts. Mountain Blade Runner sits on the $50 million Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025-2034 IDIQ (National Interagency Fire Center, 21 task orders, $6.4 million combined potential value); the $49.5 million On-Call Type III Helicopter Flight Services 2022-2027 multiple-award IDIQ (Interior Business Center, 2 awards totaling $55.5 million potential value); the $40 million Type 3 Helicopter Support Services 2023-2032 multiple-award IDIQ (National Interagency Fire Center, April 12, 2023); single-award vehicles including the $6 million Type III helicopter contract with BLM Idaho Region for Wickenburg, Arizona (awarded March 20, 2024, through March 31, 2029); the $4.35 million St. George, Utah Type III contract (BLM Idaho Region, March 13, 2023, through April 30, 2028); the $4.19 million Elko/Panaca, Nevada contract (BLM Idaho Region, May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2027); and the $4.12 million Rifle, Colorado Type III contract (BLM Idaho Region, May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2027). Mountain Blade Runner also holds a $2 million Fish and Wildlife Service contract for exclusive-use Type III services in Winnie, Texas (single award, January 2, 2023, through July 1, 2028), two $250,000 miscellaneous heavy equipment multiple-award contracts with the National Interagency Fire Center (awarded February 6, 2026 and May 14, 2024, for feller bunchers, mulchers, graders, and skidders across East Zone Regions 1, 2, and 4), and a legacy $3.5 million tail-number contract with the Forest Service for aircraft N237BS, N519FF, and N614HH (expired May 2024). The vendor also holds smaller on-call vehicles through the Department of the Interior for Type III helicopter flight services.

Activity trajectory shows growth from 2022 through 2024 (20, 32, and 31 awards respectively) followed by slight pullback in 2025 (29 awards) and partial-year data for 2026 (15 awards through June 1). The recompete cliff is modest: only 10 awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry $3.3 million in combined potential value. Recent year-over-year delivery order flow remains strong across the National Interagency Fire Center and BLM Idaho Region.

SCI-reported service-contract invoicing totaled $15.9 million across three fiscal years (FY2022–FY2024): $3.4 million in FY2022 (342 FTEs at contract level), $5.4 million in FY2023 (9.3 FTEs), and $7.1 million in FY2024 (11.8 FTEs). The large FY2022 FTE figure reflects contract-level reporting mechanics rather than company-wide headcount; subsequent years show smaller reported FTE bases. Government-paid hourly rates on federal services contracts captured in SCI ranged from a 10th percentile of $213.09 per hour to a median of $286.47 per hour and a 90th percentile of $309.16 per hour, reflecting pilot, crew, and operational cost structures. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, Mountain Blade Runner performed 100% of work with no named subcontractor hours, confirming a fully internal delivery model.

Mountain Blade Runner competes predominantly full-and-open (non-set-aside) on its largest federal work with the National Interagency Fire Center and BLM Idaho Region, although it also holds significant Total Small Business set-aside vehicles. The vendor's portfolio is entirely prime; it does not appear as a subcontractor to other federal primes in the source. Its federal footprint is geographically concentrated in the Western United States (Montrose, Colorado base of operations, with work across Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas) and operationally concentrated in wildland fire and emergency response aviation support to Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture agencies.