Morocco Boosts Firefighting Fleet with $120 Million Canadair Aircraft Purchase

The delivery of the three additional Canadairs will begin in 2023, according to the report on the sectoral budget of the national defense administration for the year 2023 presented to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. These aircraft have successfully completed their test flights in Canada, a mandatory step that allows the necessary adjustments to be made. This new acquisition brings the number of Canadairs available to Morocco to 8: five Canadair (C-415) aircraft and three (CL-215) aircraft.

Designed and produced in Canada, the Canadair (CL-215) is an amphibious twin-engine aircraft, a water bomber for fighting forest fires. It is the first aircraft specifically designed for this role, for which only military aircraft or converted commercial aircraft had previously existed. Equipped with manual flight controls, it has a retractable landing gear, which allows it to land on almost all runways and thus always be close to the fires.

Once received, these new aircraft will be of great use to Morocco, which is facing major forest fires. This year, 39 major forest fires have ravaged 3,000 hectares in provinces of the kingdom such as Larache, Chefchaouen and Tetouan.