Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley will visit Ballarat on Monday to announce the next stage of the Australian first trial of night time aerial firebombing.
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The trial, based out of Ballarat Airport, will test the capability of night vision technology to drop water on fires at night, and could signal the start of a major shakeup of how fires are fought in Australia.
Two aircraft will be based out of Ballarat Airport as part of the next stage of the trial that is set to begin this week.
One aircraft will conduct observation flights during the day and provide strategic oversight during the night, while the other will collect water and drop it on a series of controlled fires and targets after dark.
Emergency Services Minister James Merlino said the Emergency Management Victoria led trial would guide the future use of night-time aerial firefighting in Victoria.
“The results of the trial will help determine whether water-bombing aircraft will be deployed at night during future summer-fire seasons,” he said.
The trial will also test the ability to hover-fill helicopters at night and the efficiency of night-vision technology, including infrared systems and night-vision goggles.
Night-time water-bombing is used in limited overseas locations, but is not currently deployed in Australia.
The results of the trial will be used to inform operations across Australia.
Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said night-time aerial firebombing could be a major improvement to firefighting in the state.
“Night-time aerial firebombing has the potential to significantly improve Victoria’s firefighting capability by building on the number of hours aircraft have to respond to fires,” he said.
“While the use of night-vision goggles and infrared technology is not new, this has not been used together in Victoria for firebombing – or Australia.
“I look forward to seeing how we can implement this technology here to increase our operational capability at night.”
Before the trial began, Victoria’s firefighting air fleet were required return to airports before nightfall.