Brenda Marie Rivers
Lockheed Martin has introduced a firefighting airtanker variant of the C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft at the Farnborough International Airshow.
FireHerc is an updated version of Lockheed’s legacy L-11 Hercules commercial tanker and designed to help operators contain and control fires in difficult terrain and tough conditions, the company said Tuesday.
The airtanker works to disperse retardants through either its gravity-drop based Coulson Aviation RADS Product Line or its pressure-type dispersal Modular Aerial Firefighting System II, both of which have received U.S. Forest Service certification for meeting ground coverage standards.
“With the presence of wildfires increasing on a global scale, there is a real-time need to provide more advanced assets to protect our people, communities and environment,” said George Shultz, vice president and general manager for air mobility and maritime missions at Lockheed.
The tanker has a straight-wing design and turboprop power plant capable of operating in low-level, low-speed firefighting missions at any time of the day.
