Saturday afternoon in Lacanau, in the Gironde department, the military transport aircraft A400M, deployed by the government to fight fires in the Southwest, carried out its first drop of fire retardant.
This is the first time that this aircraft, capable of carrying 20,000 litres of water or retardant, developed by Airbus, the manufacturer of the A400M, has been deployed in real conditions.
This new capability represents « the equivalent of three Canadairs in water volume, » according to the government.
« Everything has been put in place by the armed forces to evaluate this kind of large tank loaded into the aircraft, and to ensure its operational use as soon as possible, » explained the Joint Chief of Staff.
The prototype, that the manufacturer notably tested in April 2025, is made up of a large semi-cylindrical tank installed in the aircraft’s cargo hold by passing through the rear ramp, without any structural modification.
Thanks to this specially designed system, the A400M, in service since 2013, can drop a volume of water or retardant equivalent to that of three Canadairs, thus offering a new support capability in the fight against forest fires.
It was « accepted earlier this week at the Orléans air base » by the army, the Joint Chiefs of Staff detailed. « The qualification of the experimental kit allowed its first deployment on Saturday » in the Bordeaux region.
The civil security explained that the drop carried out by the aircraft on Saturday « from Lacanau toward Sainte-Hélène » has the mission to « lay retardant lines outside reliefs and on the periphery ».
