Day One of FY27 Brought a $4.2 Billion Option
USTRANSCOM's Civil Reserve Air Fleet action led the first Pentagon board of the fiscal year at $4,216,308,442. All thirty contract numbers on it were signed in 2024, the window it covers is Option Period 1 to the day, and the notice that made it possible was owed to every holder by April 3.
On October 1, 2024, USTRANSCOM awarded thirty contracts for international charter airlift under solicitation HTC711-24-R-CC01. Full and open, 28 offers, a six-year ordering period running to September 30, 2030.
That was the competition. It has not happened again since.
Two years later to the day, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet took the top line of the first Pentagon contract announcement of fiscal 2027, at $4,216,308,442 across thirty carriers. The board gave it the standard formula: "were awarded a $4,216,308,442 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price with economic-price-adjustments, multiple award contract."
Every contract number in that sentence already existed.
The Tell Is in the Dates
The board printed the period of performance as October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2028. Pull the contract's own Section F-1 and that window has a name:
"The Base ordering period shall continue for two years through 30 September 2026. If Option Period 1 is exercised, the ordering period shall continue through 30 September 2028."
The match is exact, to the day on both ends. Section H says it in plainer language, that the six-year performance period "consists of a two-year base period plus two (2) two-year option periods," and that "Option periods will be executed IAW FAR 52.217-9."
The roster confirms it. We pulled all thirty PIIDs off the board and ran them through USAspending and the FPDS feed.
Twenty-nine were signed 2024-10-01. The thirtieth, HTC711-25-D-CC35, went to Avelo Airlines on 2025-03-17 under the same solicitation.
Not one new number, not one new competitor.
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