State Dept. Buying Additional, Durable Aerial Crop-Sprayers

The Aviation Office of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL/A) is assessing potential makers of such aircraft, which would be armor-hardened to repel small-arms attacks and would contain 380-gallon fuel tanks to reach broader swaths of remote sites. According to a planning document recently posted to the FedBizOpps contracting database, State is tentatively moving toward the initial purchase of three to seven of these planes for crop-eradication and other counternarcotics reconnaisance missions. The primary function of the new planes, which would take off from a variety of unspecified Forward Operating Locations and international airports, will be "to locate and eradicate illicit narcotic producing plants," among other missions, it says:

Operations are often flown in very rugged mountainous terrain that requires optimum climb and turn performance at high-density altitudes. Illicit crops are usually grown in remote areas with few bases from which to operate aircraft. For this reason, the aircraft is required to have much greater range than standard agricultural spray aircraft. Reconnaissance missions flown by this airframe are in the same rugged environment as the aerial eradication, but generally require even greater endurance to cover large areas of remote territory.

Separately, INL/A soon will deploy a quality-assurance advisor to keep tabs on contractors who are refurbishing existing counterdrug aircraft for the State Dept. The Fixed Wing Aircraft Safety Manufacturing Inspector, as the position is known, would have oversight of a Mesa, Arizona-based project involving the "re-manufacture of INL/A fixed wing aircraft at the Marsh Aviation facility," an unrelated contracting document says.

While the part-time position will focus on Arizona contractor operations, the selected candidate answers directly to officials at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, and occasionally requires travel worldwide to provide inspections in support of other INL/A activities.