Special Operations Command airlift services in Africa

The Special Operations Command Africa is conducting market research to identify companies having an interest in, and the resources to support, an emerging requirement for mobile fixed wing air transport services to move personnel and cargo within the northern regions of Africa and surrounding countries.

The specific requirement for this effort is found below.

1. Fixed-wing aircraft capable of: 

• Transporting a minimum of 1,000 pounds and maximum of 4,500 lbs to include a mix of a maximum of 12 passengers and/or cargo.
• Taking off/land on improved and unimproved dirt airfields of a minimum of 1,800 feet in length to support supply and personnel transportation requirements.

2. Contractor to provide mobile airlift services to the locations provided from the Primary Operation Area (POA). Countries within the POA where the air transportation support could be provided include , but are not be limited to, Libya, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, and Morocco. Other locations within northern Africa may be dictated by operational requirements and timely coordination will ensure contractor support.

3. The contractor will perform routine flights. Services include aircraft, flight planning, aircraft maintenance, and transporting hazardous cargo as required.

4. The contractor shall have an alternate, fully capable aircraft available in the event scheduled or unscheduled maintenance and/or repairs are required when one aircraft is not capable of flying.

5. Contractor to furnish all personnel, equipment, supplies, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, insurance, security, life support (e.g., housing, meals etc., for contractor personnel) and other items and services necessary to operate fixed-wing aircraft within the POA.

Interested companies who consider themselves qualified to perform the above-listed services are invited to submit a response to the Special Operations Command Africa by Feb. 23.

Suspension of all flights at Libya airport

Fighting between rival brigades in Libya’s capital and airport has forced the withdrawal of United Nations staff, the organization's top envoy to the country told the Security Council on Thursday.

Tarek Mitri, special representative of the Secretary-General for Libya, said that the current escalation initially started as a minor incident on July 5 between elements from rival brigades at a checkpoint near a United Nations compound, but rapidly spread into a series of major clashes across the capital, with the battle for the [international] airport becoming an all-out confrontation between two rival groups and resulting in the suspension of all flights.

This fighting, along with a marked surge of conflict in the east of the country over the past few days, particularly in Benghazi where the airport was also being shelled and had suspended operations, engendered “a mounting sense of a probable imminent and significant escalation in the conflict”, he said.