Development Begins on High-Performance, Large Wildfire Suppression Vehicle with 6,000-Liter Water Tank

Government to Accelerate Research and Development for Wildfire Response

The government has rolled up its sleeves to develop a "high-performance domestically produced wildfire suppression vehicle" to combat large-scale wildfires.

In response to the increasingly massive wildfires caused by recent climate change, the government plans to fully localize both the chassis and equipment of high-performance large wildfire suppression vehicles, which are currently entirely imported, by converting military vehicles. Additionally, it aims to develop a wildfire suppression vehicle equipped with a 6,000-liter water tank?double the water capacity of the main wildfire suppression helicopter, the KA-32 (Kamov).

Helicopter engaged in wildfire suppression operations. Photo by Yonhap News

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 19th that, through the "Emergency Response Research for Public Safety" initiative, they plan to swiftly promote research and development related to wildfire response, including improvements to wildfire suppression and rescue equipment, reflecting the needs of field operations.

The goal of the Emergency Response Research for Public Safety initiative is to quickly find solutions to disaster and safety issues that threaten the daily lives of citizens using science and technology, apply the results in the field to resolve these issues, and prevent their recurrence.

The research topic selected this time is the "development of a high-performance (large) domestically produced wildfire suppression vehicle."

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety have already invested about 400 million won to localize a medium-sized wildfire response vehicle (multipurpose wildfire suppression vehicle) equipped with a 2,020-liter water tank and a high-performance pump, which demonstrated excellent performance at recent wildfire sites. The Korea Forest Service is also working to introduce 64 multipurpose wildfire suppression vehicles this year through an additional budget.

As wildfires have grown larger due to recent climate change, high-performance wildfire suppression vehicles equipped with large-capacity water tanks have become essential. However, unlike major countries such as France, which operate suppression vehicles with water tanks of 6,000 liters or more, the domestic high-performance wildfire suppression vehicles have a capacity of only 3,500 liters, and even these are dependent on imports.

This research aims to localize both the chassis and equipment of high-performance (large) wildfire suppression vehicles, which are currently entirely imported, by converting military vehicles. Furthermore, the plan is to develop a high-performance wildfire suppression vehicle equipped with a 6,000-liter water tank?double the water capacity of the main suppression helicopter, the KA-32 (Kamov)?to effectively respond to large-scale wildfires.

For each project, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will provide approximately 900 million won in research and development funding over two years. The call for applications to select research institutions to carry out the projects will be held in June.

Jung Taekryeol, Director of Public Convergence Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "We intend to rapidly promote research and development that reflects the needs of wildfire response sites and immediately apply the results back in the field to enhance Korea's wildfire response capabilities." Seo Namgyo, Director of Social Disaster Policy at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "We expect that this research will contribute to the efficient suppression of wildfires and to protecting the lives of our citizens."