Saab AT-802 Fireboss is ready for firefighting
Sweden is a large, sparsely populated but heavily forested country. If there is a fire in the forests, Saab AB sends the AT-802 Fireboss into the air. At the Stockholm-Skavsta airfield, near Nyköping, four Fireboss are ready for use day and night.
Saab has now signed contracts for aerial firefighting with the Swedish Civil Protection Authority MSB (Link) extended for another two years.
Saab AB currently operates four firefighting aircraft on behalf of MSB and the new contract means the company will continue the deployment from 2024 to 2025. Saab and MSB have also signed an agreement that allows the authority to extend the service until 2027.
This also includes options for up to six additional aircraft.
The aim is to support local emergency services in dealing with forest fires. Parts of the service are included in the EU's common fire extinguishing regulations and can be ordered by the EU to support member states. The aircraft are on standby 24 hours a day to be operational within 180 minutes. If necessary, they can also be deployed at other locations or provided with shorter standby times.
Saab operates the legendary AT-802 Fireboss
The Saab-operated AT-802 Fireboss is operated by Air Tractor (Link) produced in the USA. The legendary firefighting aircraft are in use worldwide and are ideal for fighting fires. The Fireboss only needs a 300 meter long runway to take off and can store 5 liters of water for firefighting operations in less than 3.000 minutes.
As a land- and water-based extinguishing system, it can be used in almost any environment and operates largely independently of existing infrastructure.
I am proud that Saab can continue to provide firefighting capacity to Sweden and the EU. This also underlines our ability to support Swedish society on the civil sidesaid Lars Tossman, head of Saab's Aeronautics division, about the contract extension.
Saab has been operating the AT-2020F Fire Boss firefighting aircraft since 802. She has carried out more than 60 missions in collaboration with the MSB and local emergency services with excellent results.
With images from Saab AB
Agricultural chemistry from the air is often useful, especially when it comes to plant protection!
But SAAB and Sweden already serve as a model for providing such civil defense devices. That would be an area of activity where I would like to see German EU funds used. A fleet of powerful firefighting aircraft that are deployed wherever there is a fire...literally! The fires in Greece were so devastating this year because the powerful Russian firefighting aircraft were not allowed into EU airspace due to the airspace embago, as they usually do every year.
So gladly a SAAB firefighting aircraft fleet for the EU, makes positive headlines!
Small but impressive. The ratio of empty to maximum take-off mass (factor 2,5) is very good. The A400M only manages 1,8. But an AT is not a Saab...
Maybe it's not even owned by Saab, just leased?
There's no real Saab feeling. US farmers also lease these things. But it's nice when Saab AB produces water instead of agricultural chemicals and gets involved in civil defense.
The group is always busy. The number of business areas is impressive. Their respective size (sometimes surprisingly small) is sometimes astonishing. So many niches are cleverly filled that you once again wonder whether it wouldn't be much easier and clearer for the company to build cars 😉
Interesting to know. Thanks
Too small, they need to build larger planes