Britain to use military aircraft to fight wildfires for the first time
The RAF's Chinook helicopters and A400M aircraft will be fitted with firefighting equipment to support emergency services, in a £70 million package including a new Wildfires AI Unit.
Britain will use military aircraft to fight wildfires for the first time, the government announced on Thursday, after the country’s hottest summer on record, according to Reuters.
The Royal Air Force’s Chinook helicopters and A400M transport aircraft will be equipped with specialist wildfire firefighting capability, ready to support emergency services battling blazes on remote moorland, steep hillsides and other hard-to-reach terrain. The capability will be permanently based in the UK, the government said.
The package includes up to £45 million for specialist wildfire response teams and lightweight wildfire-specific protective equipment for firefighters, plus £25 million to restore dried-out peatlands in England and financial support for farmers to fireproof their land.
A new Wildfires AI Unit will be established in COBR’s National Situation Centre, bringing together universities, tech firms and government to spot and track fires faster, and the government will work with the Met Office on better wildfire forecasting. The Met Office found climate change made this year’s extreme heat around 130 times more likely.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said: “As the threat of wildfires in the UK grows, defence will step up to provide greater support to our emergency services and protect military training areas across the country.”
The announcement comes ahead of a wildfire summit hosted by the Prime Minister on Friday 23 October, bringing together fire chiefs, local leaders, businesses including Airbus, Google and VodafoneThree, and the devolved governments. The government will also develop England’s first Wildfire Action Plan.
Sources
- Reuters, “Britain to use military aircraft to fight climate change-fuelled wildfires” (22 October 2026): https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-use-military-aircraft-fight-climate-change-fuelled-wildfires-2026-10-22/
- UK government, “Military planes and helicopters to fight wildfires from the sky” (22 October 2026): https://www.gov.uk/government/news/military-planes-and-helicopters-to-fight-wildfires-from-the-sky
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