The EU is short on military planes to put out wildfires, but Airbus thinks it has the answer

euronews.com:

Heatwaves across Europe have led to a terrifying number of wildfires this summer.

France and Spain have seen six times as much land ravaged by blazes this year than the average over the last 15 years. In Portugal, it's three times as much.

Firefighting aircraft that drench blazes from above are essential but no EU countries have enough planes.

So Airbus has stepped in to help by converting existing planes into firefighting aircraft.

The European aircraft manufacturer has just tested a new piece of technology in Spain that it believes could help fight wildfires: a removable firefighting kit for its A400 military transporter planes.

The company says it means these aircraft can be quickly reconfigured for a “rapid reaction to unforeseen fires”.

One of the most used firefighting aircraft at the moment is made by a company called Canadair. These planes are designed specifically to water bomb blazes and can be found in fleets across the world. They have a capacity of 6,000 litres of water.

In a test this week, Airbus’s new removable kit successfully dropped 20 tonnes of water in less than 10 seconds - three times as much as Canadair’s water bombers. It can’t scoop water from lakes, however, and needs to be filled on the ground instead.

Airbus's deputy head of military aircraft says that water bombing with the A400M is not meant to compete with Canadair but complement those planes already in a country’s firefighting force.

“The development of this firefighting kit is an intrinsic part of our journey towards helping to create a more sustainable and safer world, not only by our actions but also through our products,” adds Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space.

“We strongly believe the A400M can play a vital role in the fight