Salmon River Helicopters, Inc.

Salmon River Helicopters, Inc., a woman-owned small business and SBA-certified HUBZone firm based in Riggins, Idaho, provides Type 1, 2, and 3 helicopter services for wildland fire suppression, water bucket drops, reconnaissance, law enforcement, and administrative aerial support to the Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Department of the Interior as a prime contractor on 60 of its 61 recent federal awards. The Subchapter S corporation is self-certified as a small disadvantaged business and competes predominantly full-and-open rather than under set-aside vehicles, despite holding HUBZone and woman-owned designations that enhance its competitive positioning for federal fire and aviation management opportunities.

Salmon River Helicopters' customer concentration is extreme: the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 25 awards and $134.5 million of the combined potential value across all 61 awards, representing 75% of recent award count and 97% of total potential value. Four additional USDA Forest Service regions (R3-Southwestern, R4-Intermountain, R2-Rocky Mountain) and the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region round out an active set of fifteen distinct customer agencies, but all operate at secondary scale. The vendor holds two primary indefinite delivery contracts with NIFC: a Type 1 Helicopter Support Services IDC with a $50 million ceiling through December 31, 2034, and a Type 2 Helicopter Support Services IDC with a $50 million ceiling through December 31, 2033. Salmon River Helicopters places task orders against these vehicles alongside a $5.1 million call-when-needed Basic Ordering Agreement and multiple single-award IDCs with Forest Service regions.

Concrete representative work spans the 2025-2026 period: a $3.46 million Type I helicopter delivery order from the NIFC (awarded July 11, 2025, completion November 30, 2025) supporting fiscal year 2025 fire suppression operations on the Salmon River, a $740 thousand NIFC Type 1 delivery order (September 16, 2025, completion December 31, 2029) for fire suppression and monitoring, and a $471 thousand delivery order from the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Idaho Region (July 10, 2026, completion November 30, 2026) supporting Department of the Interior fire suppression operations on the 2026 Salmon River Type I incident. Work is performed from Salmon River Helicopters' base in Riggins, Idaho and from operational sites in western U.S. locations including Page, Arizona and Farmington, New Mexico, with capability extending to Canada and Mexico.

Activity accelerated from two awards in 2022 to twelve in 2024, then slowed to five in 2025 and one through mid-2026. Only one award is scheduled for ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months (the July 10, 2026 delivery order, valued at $471 thousand), presenting minimal recompete exposure in that window. The bulk of combined potential value ($176.4 million) carries completion dates through 2029-2034, anchoring long-term revenue pipeline on the two $50 million Type 1 and Type 2 IDCs. Salmon River Helicopters subcontracts minimally — the source identifies one sub-award from April 2023 as a subcontractor to Inland Crane Inc. for helicopter transport services on a Forest Service bridge project — and operates predominantly as a prime. Across both prime and sub work, Salmon River Helicopters' capability portfolio concentrates on nonscheduled chartered freight and passenger air transportation (30 and 6 awards respectively) and support activities for forestry (21 awards), rendering it specialized in federal wildland fire response and aviation logistics rather than diversified across civilian IT, defense, or other federal verticals.

Salmon River Helicopters (SRH) is a small aviation company primarily focused on aerial power line support, aerial fire fighting, and fire rehab. SRH conducts a variety of other aerial operations including remote non scheduled freight, airplane recovery, concrete/cement transport, ski-lift assembly, ag services, helicopter logging, and HVAC transportation.

SRH is a small women owned and Hubzone certified firm. SRH has been in business since 1993 and is a family owned/operated business.