MAFFS C-130s deploy to California to aid firefighting effort

by MAFFS Air Expeditionary Group
Public Affairs

8/28/2013 - BOISE, Idaho -- The U.S. Forest Service, through the National Interagency Fire Center here, has ordered the three MAFFS aircraft operating at the Boise Air Tanker Base move to McClellan Air Tanker base near Sacramento, Calif., to assist the wildland firefighting effort in the western United States.

In a request made Aug. 26, the Forest Service also extended the military Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System mission through Sept. 30.

Five MAFFS aircraft are currently activated. Two are from the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing, and are operating from their home base at the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station in Port Hueneme, Calif. Three others -- two from Air Force Reserve Command's 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., and one from the North Carolina Air National Guard's 145th Airlift Wing, based in Charlotte, N.C., have been part of the MAFFS squadron operating from Boise.

Aircraft operations at Boise ended yesterday, but the command element for MAFFS will remain at Gowen Field here to coordinate with the National Interagency Fire Center. The Boise aircraft were expected at McClellan by late afternoon yesterday.

Since their initial activation June 11 to fight forest fires in southern Colorado, MAFFS aircraft have made 494 drops using 1,253,631 gallons of fire retardant. This summer, they have fought fires in Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California and Nevada.

MAFFS is a self-contained aerial firefighting system owned by the Forest Service. C-130 aircraft with MAFFS modules loaded into their cargo bays follow Forest Service lead planes, and military aircrews can discharge 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant along the leading edge of a forest fire in less than five seconds, covering an area a quarter of a mile long by 100 feet wide. Once the load is discharged, ground crews at a MAFFS tanker base can refill the modules in less than 12 minutes.

An interagency Defense Department and Forest Service program, MAFFS provides aerial firefighting resources when commercial and private air tankers are no longer able to meet the Forest Service's needs. A military air expeditionary group exercises control over MAFFS resources at the Forest Service's direction.