Air Force C-130 aircraft were used until 2009 to fight fires. The team that made this fight possible was alienated. The minister wants to repurchase two of these kits.
The Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, announced this Monday in Aveiro that he will propose to the Government the acquisition of two ‘kits’ to provide the C-130 aircraft with firefighting capacity, as happened in the past.
“I will present the Government with a proposal to the acquisition of two ‘kits’ that will be installed on C-130 aircraft to fight fires“said the minister, during a signing session of the cooperation protocol for the implementation of the “Education Framework for Security, Defense and Peace”, with the 11 municipalities of the Aveiro region.
The minister, who in the afternoon will visit some places affected by the September fires, took the opportunity to affirm his commitment to providing the Armed Forces “with this additional training that could make a big difference regarding the future.”
On the sidelines of the session, in statements to journalists, Nuno Melo clarified that The Armed Forces want to commit themselves to fighting fires and not only to preventive actionsas is currently the case.
“We understand that the Armed Forces, if asked, will be able to do more, as has happened in the past. “The C-130 are aircraft that can be used and put into service to fight fires as long as they are equipped with specific ‘kits’,” he stated.
The official stated that he has “very consolidated” this purpose of placing C-130 aircraft to fight fires, and added that if the Government approves the acquisition of the ‘kits’, these It may be available approximately one year after ordering..
“What interests me is knowing that if the C-130s are equipped with these ‘kits’ and if the military is called, through these planes, to fight fires, they will be at the service of the Portuguese people,” said the minister. , ensuring that there are currently four C-130s that are operational.
In July 2022, the Air Force clarified, in a statement, that during the 1980s it operated a modular system applicable to the C-130 Hercules fleet, which allowed those aircraft to be adapted to perform direct combat missions (water launch) and indirect (release of retardant mixture) to fires.
However, the use of this system would decrease significantly, according to the Air Force, becoming ineffective as of 1996, due to the reorganization of fire extinguishing means carried out by the Ministry of the Interior in the 1990s.
“After approximately 13 years, since the last effective and regular use of the aforementioned system, and considering that the equipment showed obvious signs of degradation, a product of lack of use and aging of the same (25 years), it was decided to sell the equipment in 2009. In May 2013 the disposal process was completed,” the same note states.
Source: Observadora
