Colorado's wildfire has exploded into an "epic firestorm," in the words of Colorado Springs fire chief Richard Brown. Over 30,000 people have evacuated, and already hundreds of homes have been consumed. Ironically, the U.S. Air Force Academy has also been evacuated, at the very time that Colorado desperately needs more Air Force C-130s to fight the massive fire.
A C-130 fitted with the Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS)
can drop 3,000 gallons of fire-retardant material in 5 seconds, and
reload in just 15 minutes. This tempo is crucial to containing wildfires
like the one devastating Colorado Springs. However, of a current fleet
of nearly 380 C-130s, only eight can be fitted with the MAFFS—and four
of them are already in the skies over Colorado. With another fire
looming in the north of the state, there is no excess capacity to help
protect civilian areas. That means thousands of exhausted firefighters
on the ground are without enough of the crucial support they need to
control the fires.
All this raises concerns about President Obama’s
defense budget, which cuts 65 C-130s from the fleet over the next four
years. While that will leave 318 C-130s, the demands on the fleet are
not shrinking in Afghanistan or other places. Nor did the Air Force have
much choice in the matter.
Meanwhile, a large 747 supertanker that can do the same as 7 smaller air tankers sits idle.
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