Sustainability and Environment
Airbus Firefighting System Networks Variety of Vehicles
Testing showed promising results for reducing time to deployment
Airbus firefighting system
The ground-based command center vehicle consolidated imagery and data captured from airborne assets that included drones, an ATR 72 and Cirrus SR 20 airplanes, and an H130 FlightLab helicopter. © Airbus

Airbus is taking on the challenging problem of forest firefighting with a combination of interconnected aerial and ground assets, in an effort to improve water drop accuracy and reduce the time between detection and extinguishment of the fire. This effort is “in line with Airbus’ commitment to decarbonization and tackling the growing global challenge posed by forest fires,” according to the company.

At the Garrigues military camp in Nîmes, France, Airbus and its partners tested scenarios that were developed with Service Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours (SDIS) and Entente Valabre. The latter is a public body, which the French Ministry of the Interior has tasked to provide training and assess forest firefighting equipment.

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