Article published on January 6, 2025 by David Dagouret
Contract will double FAB’s firefighting capacity
Embraer has signed a contract with the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) for the supply of a new Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFFS II) unit. This will be the second FAB device, which can be quickly installed on any KC-390 multi-mission aircraft in the FAB fleet. With the MAFFS II, the KC-390 offers a deployment capacity of approximately 12,000 liters of water in 7 seconds, per flight.
The KC-390 entered service with the Brazilian Air Force in 2019, the Portuguese Air Force in 2023, and the Hungarian Air Force in 2024. In addition to Brazil, the Portugal and Hungary, the C-390 was also acquired by the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic and South Korea. Recently, Sweden also confirmed its choice of the C-390 Millennium, and Slovakia indicated that the C-390 was the best option to renew its fleet of transport aircraft.
As a reminder, in 2023, Embraer promoted its device during the Paris Air Show, Aeroweb-fr.net was present, review the news: https://www.aeroweb-fr.net/actualites/2023/ 06/le-bourget-2023-embraer-promotes-its-kc-390
Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno, commander of the air force said: “The MAFFS II system has demonstrated great response capability in emergency situations that have occurred in many regions of Brazil. In total, the KC-390 equipped with the firefighting system has already dropped more than million liters of water this year Our decision to increase this capacity is due to the high efficiency of the MAFFS II, which has proven itself during more than 100 flights, and the demand for tools such as this. -this.”
Bosco da Costa Junior, President and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security. said: “The KC-390 has proven its versatility in critical missions for the country, such as fighting fires in the Pantanal, Amazon and São Paulo in 2024. With the acquisition of this new MAFFS II unit, the FAB will double its operational performance in these operations We are very satisfied with the progress made by the multi-mission platform manufactured by Embraer to meet the needs of the country.
