Neptune Aviation Services, Inc.

Neptune Aviation Services, Inc., doing business as Northstar Jet, a woman-owned small business headquartered in Missoula, Montana, provides large airtanker operations, aircraft maintenance and repair, aerial fire retardant drops, air attack coordination, smokejumper and cargo transport, and emergency aircraft recovery to federal wildland fire management agencies as a prime contractor under total small business set-asides and full-and-open competition.

Neptune operates the largest privately owned fleet of large airtankers in the United States and concentrates nearly all federal revenue with a single customer: the National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 443 awards (96% of award count) valued at $3.1 billion combined potential value out of Neptune's $3.18 billion total footprint. The Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region places six awards valued at $23.8 million for EU air attack services in Nevada and Idaho; three other federal agencies account for negligible volume. This extreme customer concentration—98 percent of combined potential value flows from NIFC—reflects Neptune's established position as the primary federal contractor for large-airtanker wildland fire support, with over twenty-five years of continuous delivery to federal agencies.

Neptune holds three primary indefinite delivery vehicles anchoring its federal presence. The Forest Service Airtanker Services 2023 IDIQ, a $1.444 billion multiple-award contract awarded January 1, 2024, through December 2033, supports large airtanker operations, air attack services, aircraft maintenance, aerial fire retardant drops, aerial reconnaissance, smokejumper and cargo transport, and emergency aircraft recovery; Neptune has placed 72 task orders against it valued at $187.9 million combined. A companion $48.09 million National Light Fixed Wing Services IDIQ, also awarded January 1, 2024, through December 2033, funds identical scope through NIFC. A third vehicle—a $16 million single-award Bureau of Land Management IDIQ for EU Air Attack services in Nevada and Idaho, awarded March 1, 2024, through April 30, 2029, under total small business set-aside—provides seasonal air attack operations. Two legacy call-when-needed airtanker contracts (one $349.2 million through December 2023, another $7.5 million through February 2025) continue to generate delivery orders. Representative recent awards include a $1.198 million firm fixed-price order from NIFC issued July 16, 2026 (completion August 1, 2026, Missoula), a $1.837 million order from BLM Idaho Region issued May 19, 2026 for Elko, Nevada air attack services (completion April 30, 2029), and a $46.6 million delivery order issued May 17, 2024 under the Forest Service IDIQ for exclusive-use airtanker operations (completion December 31, 2028, Boise, Idaho).

Award activity has remained volatile. Neptune received 72 awards in 2022, 59 in 2023, declined to 17 in 2024, rebounded to 19 in 2025, and surged to 68 awards through mid-September 2026. This fluctuation reflects seasonal wildfire demand rather than baseline growth. Across all awards in the source data, only eleven delivery orders (combined potential value $2.7 million) reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, indicating minimal near-term recompete exposure. Most NIFC orders show completion dates of late August through September 2026 or December 2026–2028 for longer-duration exclusive-use contracts.

On service contracts captured in the Service Contract Inventory (SCI), Neptune invoiced $163.7 million across FY2023 and FY2024 (the only fiscal years with reportable activity in the source). In FY2023, SCI-reported invoicing reached $70.9 million across 24.9 FTEs; FY2024 invoicing was $92.8 million across 20.6 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts ran a median of approximately $1,423 per hour, with rates ranging from a tenth percentile around $1,021 per hour to a ninetieth percentile around $2,282 per hour. These figures represent only federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold and exclude goods, products, classified work, and non-federal revenue; SCI captures a partial view of Neptune's federal services activity and an even smaller fraction of total enterprise revenue. Neptune self-performs all work on its federal awards with no subcontractor engagement reported.

Neptune competes predominantly under total small business set-asides across its prime footprint, though recent activity shows a mix of set-aside and full-and-open task orders. The vendor does not subcontract and operates as a sole prime under its IDIQ vehicles rather than building teaming arrangements. Corporate structure shows Neptune Aviation Services, Inc. as the legal entity; no parent company or material subsidiaries are named in the source.

Place of performance spans Missoula, Montana (headquarters and primary operations facility for aircraft maintenance and airtanker operations) and Boise, Idaho (secondary location for Next Generation 2.0 airtanker operations). The NAICS profile emphasizes Other Support Activities for Air Transportation (255 awards) and Nonscheduled Chartered Freight Air Transportation (161 awards), with smaller counts under passenger charter and forestry support. PSC distribution reflects aircraft maintenance and repair (254 awards) and fire suppression/presuppression services (186 awards). Neptune's profile is highly specialized—a single-purpose federal contractor optimized for wildland fire airtanker delivery with minimal portfolio diversity.