But that's considerably later than either Neptune officials or Democratic Sen. Max Baucus were led to believe on July 2, when the agency approved the use of five P-3 Orions owned by a competitor.
One of those Aero Union air tankers is now stationed in Missoula, ready to respond to any emerging wildfires.
DynCorp Technical Services, which was hired to assess the safety of the air tankers, will provide its report to the Forest Service no later than July 30 - a Friday, Nelson said.
The Forest Service will then release its decision Monday, Aug. 2.
The agency pulled its contracts for 33 heavy air tankers in May after the National Transportation Safety Board said there was no way to guarantee their airworthiness.
In 2002, two air tankers owned by Hawkins and Powers of Greybull, Wyo., lost their wings while dropping retardant on wildfires. Those accidents prompted the NTSB investigation and subsequent report.
Other contractors, including Missoula-based Neptune, cried foul, saying their aircraft were safe, reliable and fulfilled an indispensable firefighting mission.
Under considerable political pressure, the Forest Service then hired DynCorp to evaluate each air tanker previously under contract for firefighting missions.
Only San Diego-based Aero Union's planes have since been returned to service.
At Baucus' office, spokesman Barrett Kaiser said the senator is frustrated by the amount of time it has taken to evaluate Neptune's firefighting fleet.
"There's no question that Max is frustrated," he said.
Neptune employs more than 100 people, all of whom have received notices of a possible layoff because of the canceled contract.
"We're riding herd on this," Baucus said in a prepared statement. "I'm going to continue to push to get this safety information finalized, and I'm hoping an announcement will come soon."
At Neptune, aviation safety director Chris Holm said company officials have been meeting - by telephone - with Forest Service and DynCorp officials every day.
Again and again, he said, DynCorp investigators have had nothing but praise for Neptune and its airplanes.
"The exit interview by DynCorp concluded that Neptune was exemplary," he said, "that we have a high level of integrity, that they were very pleased with our staff and found our records to be complete."
The Forest Service did require additional information about the service life limits of the P2Vs flown by Neptune, Holm said. But that information was submitted last week.
Holm said he could not comment on why the report has been so slow in coming, when the Forest Service initially said it would be ready in early July.
"The clock is ticking on this year's fire season," Baucus said.
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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