PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — The Department of Defense completed a third day of supporting California firefighting efforts with specially equipped aircraft on Friday.
Six Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130 Hercules planes equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System dropped tons of fire retardant on wildfires in San Diego County.
The aircraft conducted 16 sorties from Channel Islands Air National Guard base, Calif., against the Poomacha fire under operational control of U.S. Northern Command and at the request of the local incident commander. The six aircraft belong to three units: the 302nd Airlift Wing from Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., the 153rd Airlift Wing from Cheyenne, Wyo., and the 145th Airlift Wing from Charlotte, N.C.
All aircraft successfully completed their missions and have returned to base. Operations will resume Saturday.
Air Forces Northern flew RQ-4 Global Hawk, U-2 aircraft, and Navy P-3 aircraft missions under the operational control of U.S. Northern Command and continued to provide real-time video and still photos to civil authorities on the ground. Hot spots in previously burned areas continue to be identified and firefighters re-directed to those locations to extinguish the fires.
The Global Hawk and U-2 aircraft flew out of Beale Air Force Base, Calif., and belong to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing. The Navy P-3 aircraft flew out of Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., and belong to Patrol Squadron 46 from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.
The video and still photos have proven extremely useful to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention and firefighters on the ground. Not only have they provided a better overall picture of the fires, but also detailed fire data to decision makers. Sorties will continue Saturday to make incident awareness assessments.
In other Department of Defense firefighting support, one UH-1 and eight H-60s U.S. Navy helicopters continued to conduct wildfires firefighting suppression. Operations will resume Saturday, including nighttime Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) operations with two H-60s conducting fire spotting and perimeter mapping.
March Air Reserve Base and North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego are the primary and secondary forward staging area for Federal Emergency Management Agency logistics centers.
USNORTHCOM is the joint combatant command formed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to provide homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities. The command is responsible for the operational control of all active-duty military responses to a disaster when requested by the state and ordered by the president and the secretary of defense. USNORTHCOM is providing unique DoD capabilities for disaster response operations in support of the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of the Interior/National Interagency Fire Center, and state and local officials.