Airmen from the California Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves brushed up on their aerial firefighting skills late last month in preparation for the 2024 wildfire season, which could see fires break out across North America.
Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel were activated across the Western United States this week to help fight wildfires raging from Hawaii to Oregon to Alaska.
Firefighting technology hasn’t changed much from the days when Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson dropped buckets of water from a UH-60 Black Hawk, and his brother, a smokejumper, parachuted in to fight wildfires on foot. What has changed is the ...
High temperatures and drought across the West are sparking an almost unprecedented operations tempo for Air Force firefighting C-130s and aircrews. C-130s from three Air National Guard wings and an Air Force Reserve wing are flying missions with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System, supporting the ...
A third specially equipped Air Force C-130 joined firefighting efforts in California this week as flames burn in five large fires in northern California. The Modular Airborne Firefighting System-equipped C-130H from the Nevada Air National Guard’s 152nd Airlift Wing began operating out of the former ...
With more than 1.3 million acres already damaged in wildfires this year and 56 large fires currently raging, the Air National Guard activated a specially equipped C-130 and crew to aid firefighting efforts across the western U.S. The National Interagency Fire Center requested the Guard's ...
Four Democratic senators are pushing the Air Force to send eight C-130J aircraft to the Nevada Air National Guard to bolster firefighting missions as the American West continues to suffer from devastating wildfires. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Dianne Feinstein ...
Air Force C-130s and Airmen wrapped up their firefighting season on Oct. 3 after helping extinguish a record number of blazes in California over more than two months. Since USAF's airborne firefighting units were activated July 22, specially equipped C-130s spent about 600 hours flying ...
Air National Guard reconnaissance aircraft are tracking the spread of record fires across California, with unmanned and manned aircraft providing video to help with the response. The California Air National Guard’s 195th Wing’s 234th Intelligence Squadron is using video feeds from MQ-9s and at least ...
C-130s from four Air National Guard and Reserve units, outfitted with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, are flying at a high operations tempo battling massive fires burning across California. The units had 2019 off from firefighting because of a slow season, but are now facing ...
Specially equipped C-130s are supporting fire responses across California, where numerous blazes have destroyed dozens of homes and prompted evacuations throughout the state. Four C-130s from the California Air National Guard’s 146th, the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd, and Nevada Air National Guard’s 152nd Airlift ...