According to data reported in the World Fire Atlas of the European Space Agency (ESA), in the last seven years, in Europe, a considerable number of fires have hit Portugal, Italy, Greece, France and Spain. Almost 900,000 hectares of natural land – an area roughly the size of Corsica – were burned in 2022, while in 2023, in the first part of the year alone, again in Europe, fires affected over 500,000 hectares of natural land, often presenting situations impossible to control with traditional firefighting means.
In this increasingly challenging fight against forest fires, Leonardo has demonstrated the effectiveness of the innovative C-27J Next Generation Fire Fighter, a twin-engine turboprop aircraft also designed to complement helicopters and amphibious aircraft, so-called “scoopers”, which supply themselves with water directly from water surfaces such as seas, lakes or rivers.
Agile, maneuverable, and fast, the C-27J is equipped with modern digital avionics and STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) features to land even on short or semi-prepared runways close to the intervention sites. These features allow it to arrive more quickly and operate better in places where other fire-fighting vehicles, whether air or land, cannot reach, including isolated territories, with a lack of water basins, also operating in extreme weather conditions (for example, when the sea is rough).