The Defense Minister of Portugal has requested to use the C-130s of the Air Force for firefighting procedures. These aircraft will contribute towards extinguishing forest fires during emergencies.
Proposal For Using C-130s For Forest Fire
Nuno Melo, Portugal’s defense minister has announced using C-130s for forest fires. This announcement was made in Aveiro where Nuno stated that he proposed to the government about utilizing C-130s. Air Force planes have the capacity to deal with fire in forests. Some of these planes were also used in the past as well.
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This announcement was made during the cooperation protocol signing for the implementation of the Defense mechanism. This signing was made with 11 municipalities of the Aveiro area under the name ‘Framework for Education for Security, Defense and Peace’. The defense minister stated:
We believe that the Armed Forces, if called upon, can do more, as has happened in the past. The C-130s are aircraft that can be used and deployed to fight fires, provided they are equipped with specific kits.
Armed Forces Want To Be Involved
Portugal’s defense minister, Nuno Melo will visit some of the affected areas of wildfires in the month of September. He further stated that more training in the Armed Forces can be quite helpful in the future. His motive is to use the Airforce C-130s to splash water in fire-affected areas within the forest. He further stated that the Armed Force wants to be involved in the rescue operations as forest firefighters.
Nuno is very much interested in utilizing the C-130s for control operations during forest fire. He believes that if the government places orders for the kits that will be used by planes, it will be available one year after placing the order. He informed us that 4 C-130s are operational and available. He stated:
What interests me is knowing that if the C-130s are equipped with these ‘kits’ and if the military are called upon, using these aircraft, to fight fires, they will be at the service of the Portuguese people.
Kits Can Be Equipped On C-130s
The Air Force has clarified back in the year 2022 that has used a system in the 1980s which was also applicable on C-130 Hercules Planes. This made it eligible to carry water dropping directly to any place which is caught with fire. Firefighting operations were also eligible during these operations in the 1980s. It is stated:
Some 13 years after the last effective and regular use of the system and considering that the equipment was showing obvious signs of degradation as a result of lack of use and ageing (25 years), it was decided to sell the equipment in 2009. In May 2013, the disposal process was finalized.
This system’s use for firefighting was reduced over time. Since 1996, there is almost no usage for the system which uses kits to be installed on aircraft. This happened due to the reorganization of the firefighting resources by the government. There were some amendments made by the Ministry of Interior at the start of the 1990s.
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