One of the Romanian Air Force’s C-27Js will be the first aircraft in Europe to use an innovative firefighting system. In the several past weeks, Alenia Aermacchi conducted intense operating and training tests on the aircraft, which included the new fire-fighting system onboard.
Alenia Aermacchi recently completed an experimental campaign in a Romanian mountain range with a C-27J that operates with the Fortele Aeriene Române —the Romanian Air Force. The objective of the campaign was to test the innovative firefighting system called Caylym Guardian. The system allows C-27Js to drop up to six large cardboard containers on bushfires; each container has a capacity of 1000 liters water or extinguishing liquid.
The system allows for a quick, accurate and innovative way to fight bushfires. Using the C27J’s system of in-flight drop, the Guardian guarantees extreme precision of the drop and creates a retardant liquid cloud well focused on the target. Containers are biodegradable but they can also be recovered by ground firefighters.
Containers feature standard dimensions type A22 which can be installed on aircraft of C-130 and C-27J’s class without any peculiar equipment or modification and can be launched at higher altitudes (1.500 feet) than traditional firefighting aircraft, thus significantly increasing mission safety and allowing night operations.
The tests, performed both on ground and in flight, have proved successful and have thus confirmed the great operating flexibility of the C-27J, whose wider fuselage section and flight characteristics allow it to manage loads and perform missions that other aircraft of its same class cannot.
