Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Mississippi, was awarded a contractor logistics support services contract with an estimated total value of $299,965,743 for the C-12 fleet used by Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). This contract was a competitive acquisition and three offers were received. Fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance funds for AFMC and PACAF, and some DIA and DSCA; fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and evaluation funds for Edwards AFB, California, and Holloman AFB, New Mexico; fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance funds for the remainder of DIA and DSCA; and fiscal 2024 aircraft procurement funds in total amount of $21,249,417 are being obligated at time of task order award.
The C-12 CLS contract is entering into Option Year VII. Task Order FA8134-24-F-6007 will be issued to fund work performed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Edwards Air Force Base, California; Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Madison, Mississippi; Holloman AFB, New Mexico; Okmulgee, Oklahoma; San Angelo, Texas; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gaborone, Botswana; Brasilia, Brazil; Bogota, Columbia; Cairo, Egypt; Accra, Ghana; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Budapest, Hungary; Yokota Air Base, Japan; Nairobi, Kenya; Rabat, Morocco; Manila, Philippines; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Bangkok, Thailand; Ankara, Turkey; and Oslo, Norway, and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2024. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8106-17-D-0001).
The Beechcraft C-12 Huron is the military designation for a series of twin-engine turboprop aircraft based on the Beechcraft Super King Air and Beechcraft 1900. The first C-12A models entered service with the U.S. Army in 1974 and were used as a liaison and general personnel transport. The aircraft was essentially an “off-the-shelf” Super King Air 200, powered by the type’s standard Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-41 engines. C-12 variants are used by the United States Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. These aircraft are used for various duties, including embassy support, medical evacuation, as well as passenger and light cargo transport. Some aircraft are modified with surveillance systems for various missions, including the Cefly Lancer, Beechcraft RC-12 Guardrail and Project Liberty programs.
A U.S. Air Force variant of the plane for surveillance roles primarily over Afghanistan and Iraq was the MC-12W Liberty. For that variant, Beechcraft built the basic plane and then sent it to Greenville, Texas where sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment was installed by L-3 Communications Missions Integration. The MC-12W was rushed into combat as a supplemental surveillance and signals intelligence asset. Since its first combat mission on 10 June 2009, the aircraft flew 400,000 combat hours in 79,000 combat sorties, aiding in the kill or capture of “more than 8,000 terrorists” and uncovering 650 weapons caches. With its roles taken over by the growing MQ-9 Reaper fleet, the Air Force decided to divest itself of the 41 Liberty aircraft and turn them over to the U.S. Army and U.S. Special Operations Command, which was completed by October 2015.
