Erickson Air-Crane has been awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to provide comprehensive replenishment and logistics services.
Under the contract, Erickson Air-Crane will provide ship-based and shore-based vertical replenishment and other rotary-wing logistic services to the US Navy Military Sealift Command (MSC), for support of the US fifth and seventh fleets, operating primarily in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
The company will also provide search and rescue support, medical evacuations, passenger transfers, internal cargo movement and dynamic interface testing as part of the contract.
Erickson chief executive officer, Udo Rieder, said the company will provide these important services to the Sealift Command.
"This new award for Evergreen underlines our growth opportunity and further cements our position as a preferred provider of services for a wide variety of missions in support of defence operations around the world," Rieder said.
The MSC’s vertical replenishment (VERTREP) programme has been designed to create efficiency, allow ships to remain at sea for extended periods as well as to improve safety and boost mission readiness levels for the US.
Operating approximately 110 non-combatant, merchant mariner-crewed ships that replenish US Navy ships, the MSC performs specialised missions, strategically prepositions combat cargo at sea and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed US forces and coalition partners.
Awarded competitively to Evergreen Helicopters International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Erickson Air-Crane, the contract will begin on 1 October 2013.
The contract has a first year value of $6.8m and four additional option-year renewals, with a cumulative total value of $36.6m.
Image: the MSC dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE-1) in the Atlantic Ocean. Photo: courtesy of the US Navy.
