17/08/2026
France is reshaping how it fights wildfires.
With large airtankers alone no longer enough to match the speed of new ignitions across the country, a new operational layer was introduced in 2025: six Australian-operated Air Tractor AT-802s deployed for rapid initial attack.
Smaller, faster, and positioned closer to high-risk zones, these aircraft now act in the critical first minutes of a fire, buying time for larger assets like the CL-415 Canadair and Dash 8 Q400-MR to arrive and reinforce suppression efforts.
✍️ The Australian AT-802 Strike Force in France | by Babak Taghwaee
📎 Read the full story in Aerial Fire Magazine. https://ow.ly/vCtF50ZvQcm
