LONDON—The UK government will equip Royal Air Force (RAF) airlifters and helicopters for future aerial firefighting missions after a record summer heatwave caused more than 1,300 wildfires.
With climate change expected to cause longer, hotter and drier summers, the RAF’s Airbus A400Ms and Boeing CH-47 Chinook fleets are set to be equipped with firefighting systems so they can be called in by civil authorities to support future firefighting efforts.
Until now, the aerial firefighting role has been limited to RAF helicopter crews operating in Cyprus, while UK authorities have had to call in private helicopter operators to conduct aerial firefighting missions.
The UK defense ministry “will step up,” Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said. There will now be a firefighting capability permanently based in the UK, ready to aid UK emergency services and to protect military training areas from the wildfire threat, he said.
The Chinooks will likely be equipped with water buckets, while the Caylym Guardian Containerized Aerial Fire Fighting System will be tested for use on the A400M. Already adopted by other European nations on other airlifters, the Caylym Guardian is essentially an 8-ply corrugated box capable of holding 1,000 liters of any firefighting payload.
These boxes can be pushed out of the back of the aircraft without any major modifications required for the A400M. Unlike other firefighting systems that require low-level release, the Caylym system can be delivered from higher altitudes.
Equipping RAF aircraft with firefighting capabilities is part of a broader government response to the growing threat of wildfires.
The UK Met Office, the nation's meteorological agency, has found that climate change makes the extreme heat conditions around 130 times more likely.
Angela Rayner, the UK’s housing, communities and local government secretary, said UK wildfires had been “unrelenting” and left a “devastating impact on communities, homes and our precious countryside.”
She said the government was working to build “a stronger, more resilient national response to wildfires for the future.”
A report published by European emergency services aviation operator Avincis in March said more aircraft were needed in Europe to tackle the worsening firefighting threat and that the risk of fire was now year-round, rather than only seasonal.
Related Content
