Morocco’s Air Force to Receive First Upgraded Bombardier CL-415 Firefighting Aircraft

The process of modernizing the Bombardier (now De Havilland Canada - DHC) CL-415 amphibious multi-engine aircraft of the Moroccan Air Force is well underway. The Canadian company Cascade Aerospace, based in Abbotsford (British Columbia), specialized in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), is about to deliver to Morocco its first aircraft upgraded to the Enhanced Aerial Fighter (EAF) standard, indicates the Moroccan defense forum Far-Maroc on its Facebook page.

The modernized aircraft has been equipped with new engines and its horizontal stabilizers have been modified. "After delivery of the aircraft to DHC, the painting process and final touch-ups will be carried out before delivery to Morocco," the same source specifies. The aircraft was delivered at the end of June 2022 to the Canadian company to undertake the modernization work on its avionics, communications, navigation and presentation through a cockpit equipped with multi-function digital screens to the EAF standard.

Morocco bought the first model of this forest firefighting aircraft in February 2011. Since then, the Moroccan Air Force has strengthened its fleet with more Bombardier CL-415s, based at the Kenitra air base. In total, Morocco now has eight units of this aircraft. In August 2012, Morocco sent two CL-415s (crews and maintenance personnel) to the Canary Islands to help fight the fires that ravaged La Gomera. It has also deployed them in Portugal, a victim of fires every summer.

Algeria is also about to receive Russian Beriev Be-200ES firefighting aircraft, according to the Spanish press, which points out that the Algerian Ministry of National Defense signed a contract in 2021 with the Russian aeronautical company Beriev for the manufacture of four units of these aircraft. Meanwhile, Morocco is the only Arab and African country among the 12 countries in the world to have CL-415s, namely Canada, Spain, the United States, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Thailand, South Korea, Croatia and Malaysia.