Latest model firefighting planes should be ready by 2027
Thanks to an EU funding initiative, two ‘top-of-the-range’ firefighting Canadair ‘water bombers’ are on their way to Portugal, albeit they haven’t yet been built.
The contract for the purchase of two DHC-515 heavy bombers was signed this morning at the Air Museum in Sintra in the presence of the ministers of defence, Nuno Melo, and internal administration, Margarida Blasco, as well as the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, João Cartaxo Alves.
This is just part of a €600 million initiative to reinforce the European firefighting force, with a concerted focus on the ‘most vulnerable member states’, which include Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Croatia.
“It all goes back to Portugal in 2017 when there were very large fires in which around 100 people died and when it was realised that we don’t have enough capacity in Europe,” European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, told Lusa news agency.
Alluding to the forest fires of June and October 2017, which killed more than 100 people, and ravaged hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, destroying multiple homes and businesses, Janez Lenarčič stressed that in those times “Portugal didn’t have that capacity of its own”, nor could it count on support from other member states due to a lack of available resources.
For this reason, since then the European Commission has focused on preparing against forest wildfires.
Talks with Canadian manufacturer Canadair were recently finalised, and now the European fleet can be reinforced, with the absolute latest in forest fire control.
“With the signatures (between the governments of these six countries and Canadair) that we hope will take place this year, we should finalise this process”, Lenarčič explains. “Two member states (Greece and Croatia) have already signed contracts of this type in March, and we hope that Spain, Italy and France will do so soon, so that production can begin.”
The idea is that the new firefighting planes will be distributed among the six countries (including Portugal) “from 2027 onwards”, he said.
The aircraft will also increase the aerial firefighting capacity of the rescEU strategic reserve (as Portugal and the other five countries will be expected to ‘share them’ when necessary and possible).
Source: LUSA
