2023 RescEU wildfire fleet unveiled
The European Union (EU) has more than doubled the size of its RescEU aerial firefighting fleet
The 2023 fleet will include 24 fixed-wing aircraft and four helicopters, supplied by 10 member states. This includes:
- Two medium scooping airplanes from Croatia
- Two light planes from Cyprus
- Two helicopters from Czechia
- Two medium scooping airplanes from France
- Two light planes from Germany
- Two medium scooping airplanes and two light planes from Greece
- Two medium scooping airplanes and two light planes from Italy
- Two light planes from Portugal
- Two medium scooping airplanes from Spain
- Four light planes from Sweden.
France and Greece will also supply a firefighting helicopter each.
The 2023 fleet is more than double the size of the one assembled in 2022 – in which 12 fixed-wing aircraft and one helicopter were provided by six EU member states (Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden).
RescEU is an EU initiative that serves as the bloc’s primary response against wildfires within the borders of its member states. Aircraft from member states that participate in the initiative are distributed throughout the EU to serve as a rapid response to severe forest and brush fires.
New wildfire peer review methodology announced
Alongside the announcement of the 2023 RescEU fleet, the EU also announced the launch of a new Wildfire Peer Review Assessment Methodology. A statement from the European Commission described the new methodology as a ‘tool’ to ‘help countries assess their capacity to prevent and prepare for wildfires’.
The statement also said that the methodology is intended to ‘support the exchange of good practices among European countries, within the framework of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism’.
Alongside this, the European Commission also announced the creation of a new Emergency Response Coordination Centre Wildfires Support Team to enable ‘near-real-time monitoring and analysis of the wildfire situation’ from mid-June to mid-September.