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After Active Fire Season, MAFFS Mission Ends

Robert Couse-Baker
/
Creative-Commons Flickr

After being activated in June for the Black Forest Fire near Colorado Springs, and other western wildfires, the U.S. Forest Service is releasing the U.S. military C-130 MAFFS fleet from service.

As wildfires decrease across the country and civilian Forest Service air tankers become more readily available, the need for the specially equipped MAFFS C-130’s is no longer warranted.

MAFFS crews have flown 572 missions and dropped 1,375,981 gallons of fire retardant during 535 drops fighting fires in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC6Phb3090M

Through an agreement with the U.S. military, MAFFS equipped C-130’s are brought into service when the civilian air tanker fleet is no longer able to adequately fight fires across the country. MAFFS equipped planes are based around the country including Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs and a base in Cheyenne Wyoming.

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