Canadair CL-415

The European Commission has announced the start of production for 12 new Canadair DHC 515 firefighting aircraft, which will form the permanent European forest firefighting fleet (rescEU). These aircraft will be permanently stationed in Greece, Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

The European Commission confirmed on Thursday that the production of 12 new DHC 515 firefighting aircraft, an improved version of the Canadair 415, is under way.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the Elefsina Air Base this morning, where the firefighting aircraft of the 383rd Special Operations and Aerial Firefighting Squadron and the 355th Tactical Transport Squadron are stationed.

Greece sent four firefighting aircraft to Albania on Tuesday and Wednesday to help combat a large forest fire in the south of the country.

The deployment was organized through the European Civil Protection Mechanism after Albania requested assistance. Greece provided two PZL planes on Tuesday and two Canadair CL-415 aircraft on Wednesday.

Greece’s fleet includes various types of aircraft, including Canadair and newer Air Tractor models.

Greece on Thursday approved the purchase of seven firefighting aircraft from Canada to bolster its defences against wildfires, which have ravaged the country in recent years.

The deal passed by Parliament is to buy seven DHC-515 aircraft from the Canadian Commercial Corp for 361 million euros ($392 million).

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will travel to Canada later this week, where he will finalize a deal to purchase seven DHC-515 Firefighters, the newest water bombers built by De Havilland, Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper reported Wednesday. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the Fire Service's special aerial operations units at the Elefsina Air Base, the 383rd Special Operations & Air Firefighting Squadron, and the 355th Tactical Transport Squadron on Saturday to express his support for the crews fighting to contain numerous wildfires that have ravaged areas in Attica over the past week amid scorching temperatures. 

Cyprus and Croatia are to deploy firefighting aircraft to Greece through the EU-wide Civil Protection Mechanism, following an additional request from the General Secretariat of Civil Protection, to help battle wildfires that have intensified as the Kleon heat wave continues.

Cyprus has provided two Air Tractors and Croatia one CL-415 from the rescEU fleet of firefighting planes.

Eight new CL-515 will be bought and the eight existing CL-415 will be upgraded to the CL-515 standard as well