NATO air forces are integrating their equipment and assisting national efforts to extinguish wildfires raging in many Alliance countries.
According to the Alliance here:
“Climate change has created natural disasters in countries worldwide from floods to catastrophic wild fires. This year, again, many Allied countries have been devastated by wildfires in the last few weeks. We witnessed forest fires e.g. in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, the United States and Canada. However, climate change affects not only the southern countries, but also hits in the north like the Czech Republic and Germany.
As the affected nations are mustering all their civilian emergency services to fight fires around the globe, the military makes available their unique equipment both on the ground and in the air to support the national firefighting efforts. Using planes and helicopters allows the firefighting crews to respond quicker in hard to reach areas with extinguishing material, which otherwise would take longer with traditional firetrucks.”
The mission of Allied Air Command, they say, is to collectively support enduring operational deployments under national and Alliance security, and – at the moment specifically – NATO’s air shielding posture along the eastern flank.
“The Allied air forces – together with the civilian and military emergency services – are doing their best to help protect the populations put in danger by the widespread fires that have been impacting virtually all countries over the last weeks”, said Lieutenant Colonel Panagiotis Filis a career pilot of CL-215 firefighting aircraft with the Hellenic Air Force and now a member of Allied Air Command.
“Aerial firefighting missions are among the most complex in aviation, as crews have to deal with the four Classic elements of Water, Earth, Fire and Air. We are grateful that you help keep us all safe,” he added.
You can read more here.
Surely here in the UK we now need a National & regional water bomber fire service with significant numbers of helicopters, and crucially, large, quick-refill aircraft waiting to be called to action before fires escalate. I’m slightly surprised that a private operator has not set up in the UK to do this. Where is Canada’s Buffalo Air when you need them? I lament the loss in Canada of the old Sproat lake Mars bombers that were superb for this role, and what a waste of all those 747s and Airbusses scrapped recently. These wildfires are only going to get worse… Read more »
Hence why Airbus doing https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/airbus-test-a400m-in-water-bomber-role/
if all A400 operators had 3-4kits would give NATO large capability
The trouble is that the Government would likely be the sole client & would need to outline their approach to resolving the problem on behalf of the public. Companies are unlikely to make an investment until they understand how they might gain a return on said investment.
Yep, agree. It needs some sort of framework agreement from the Gov. Given UK’s general lack of ability to think strategically, there is a zero-chance of that I fear.
Think of the rights of the fish.
….and also the Mermaids. 🙂
It’s not climate change, it’s arsonists.
Haha, yes ignore the evidence and rely on good old opinion. The causes of wildfires in the UK isn’t even investigated so you’ve got no idea. Changes in the climate driven by greenhouse gas emissions are making wildfires more likely, that’s absolutely undeniable.
climate driven by greenhouse gas emissions are making wildfires more likely, that’s absolutely undeniable. Ridiculous, inform yourself about Climate History instead of parroting media ignorance and propaganda. For example how in Summer of 1904 all 4 great German rivers were not navigable with wild fires all over the country and neighbouring ones like Hungary destroying villages. Or maybe you want to go to 1540? It is natural change/variability, most fire are by humans but not criminal in nature and a part are natural. The movement of people to cities and less animal foraging means that the fields accumulate much more… Read more »
How dare you concede the point that the fires are man made! There are no fires. And what if there were? There have always been wild fires, and nothing has changed. I remember back in the 50s when we had real fires, but we couldn’t see them through the smog so nobody noticed. Then there was 1666. That was a proper fire, but we just buried our cheeses and went to bed. Younger generation, bunch of whinging snowflakes! But seriously, has anyone bothered to check the figures according to the Europen Environoment Agency or the American EPA? The number of… Read more »
It is apparent that a properly motivated and organized group can accomplish tasks rapidly. Perhaps that is a partial explanation for the successful incorporation of the AGM-88 High Speed Antiradiation Missile (HARM) on to the MiG-29 w/in several months, as confirmed by the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. This was a non-trivial task, by any measure. Perhaps the F-35 SPO should be invited to take notes, rather than blindly repeating the rote answer that everything will be incorporated w/in the Block 4 software/hardware release, due sometime during 21st century! 🤔😳🙄
The Ukrainians are an intelligent, inventive, and industrious people, but I suspect they had significant assistance from a USAF/contractor team. Now, physician heal thyself…
Yes but… has that got anything to do with this? I actually can’t tell if this is relevant to the firefighting (which I don’t think it is) or you’re starting a separate discussion.
No particular relevance to firefighting article, other than this was another case wherein organization successfully addressed emergent issue. Read an article online which increased my level of dissatisfaction/annoyance w/ F-35 SPO performance. Searched for a recent relevant article–no joy..
Youean no relevance. You just want to shoehorn whatever you’re interested in in.
May I suggest one of the Discord channels if you want to do that?
Daft question but as we happen to have the 2nd largest fleet of CH47 in the world (60 odd) why aren’t we using them ? I’ve seen large helicopters including Army CH47’s used as Water bombers in Greece, it isn’t rocket science, basically just a huge bucket with a valve on and it works. Japan even used them to drop water on Fukushima to cool the reactors. The advantage over winged aircraft are the response, turnaround times and the accuracy. Anyone from here in Derbyshire remembers what one Chinook could do to repair the Toddbrook Dam 3 years ago and… Read more »
“…just use a bit of joined up thinking.”
And therein lies the problem!
Yes, I have long wanted bambi buckets for RAF Chinooks. There is a firm in America (Columbia?) that uses civil Chinooks & has developed the specialist firefighting kit. We could get them to supply & train RAF Chinooks.
Quick search reveals Columbia, Billings & Coulson firms in the USA, use Chinooks for firefighting. They have all the specialist kit & knowledge. Hire one of them to train & equip RAF Chinooks.