Building tomorrow's firefighting tankers

Key to the U.S. Forest Service's strategy for containing and quenching the wildfires that raged ^across New Mexico in May were the scores of aircraft that soared over the blazes, dumping thousands of liters of retardant and water. Many of these aircraft have been in service for decades, and with wildfires across the world projected to burn longer and more intensely compared to past decades, the U.S. Forest Service and its contractors need to expand their fleets. Enter ST Engineering of Singapore, which in February announced a contract to convert a former Boeing 757 passenger airliner into a firefighting tanker for Galactic Holdings, an Arkansas fire suppression start-up founded in 2020. With a planned capacity of 26,000 liters, the 757 would carry more retardant than the C-130s on loan from the U.S. Air Force which hold 11,000 liters but less than the DC-10s that carry roughly 45,000 liters, about half the capacity of a public swimming pool.