How to respond to the Air Force’s RAF parcel delivery RFI

What the Air Force is exploring

The 48th Contracting Squadron is seeking market research on reliable, cost-effective ways to collect personal and official parcels from commercial carriers without installation access and deliver them to homes and agencies at RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell. The service is expected to cover all three installations from the beginning and operate seven days a week.

This is an RFI for acquisition planning, not a contract solicitation. Responses are not offers, do not create a contract, and the Government will not reimburse response costs. The Air Force is interested in practical commercial approaches that avoid unnecessary complexity and can scale with changing parcel volumes.

Deadline and what it means

The RFI was published September 30, 2026. The response deadline is November 15, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Treat the deadline as the cutoff for submitting market-research information, not as a bid opening or contract award date. The RFI does not promise that a future solicitation will be issued.

Who may find this relevant

This opportunity may suit parcel delivery, logistics, and transportation firms able to explain how they would collect parcels from commercial carriers and complete on-base delivery at the three RAF installations.

A useful response will address the access challenge: local-national installation access can take upwards of seven months, drivers may turn over or be unable to qualify, and government-provided escorts are not available. Drones are not permitted on or near the installations and should not be proposed.

How to access the opportunity

Click “View original source” above to open the opportunity on the portal. If the first click takes you to the portal homepage, click it again to go directly to the bid.

A free account may be needed to view documents, though many opportunities can be viewed without one. Follow the portal’s available instructions for submitting your response; no specific submission method is provided in the information here.

Prepare a practical, useful response

Explain your operating model clearly, including how parcels move from commercial carriers to the intended on-base recipient and how you would provide access-qualified staffing without relying on escorts. Address the access process and how your staffing plan could work within the anticipated transition period.

Show how the approach handles uncertain demand. RAF Lakenheath currently has about 1,000 parcels a week, with volume expected to at least triple if a service is established; comparable figures are not available for Mildenhall or Feltwell. The estimated volume order is Lakenheath, Feltwell, then Mildenhall. Describe how volume changes would affect operations and pricing, and suggest a suitable CLIN structure if useful.

Keep the proposal grounded in reliable, sustainable cost. Address seven-day service, carrier handoffs at different times, and practical delivery assumptions, including the preference for residential delivery by 5 p.m. Avoid assuming guaranteed parcel quantities or proposing unnecessary premium features.