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        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      AF maintenance squadron prepares C-130 for US Forest ServicePublished July 29, 2016
                    
                    By Jenny Gordon
                    
                    
                    Robins Air Force Base Public Affairs
            **ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFNS) --**What started out as an aircraft used by the Coast Guard and later maintained by Airmen will soon end up in the hands of the U.S. Forest Service. 
A C-130H Hercules that has been revamped by the 560th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron is in its final stages of programmed depot maintenance here, having just wrapped up functional test procedures. The aircraft’s final visit will be to corrosion control where it will receive a new paint job before it leaves. 
The aircraft has remained at Robins Air Force Base and is scheduled to fly out in August when it will serve a different role -- fighting fires. 
“The good news about this is we’ll be able to get this plane back to the Forest Service right in time for the fire season, and give them a key piece of firefighting equipment,” said Stephen Adcock, the 560th AMXS Functional Test flight chief. “We’ve been regenerating this aircraft and getting ready to offer it up to a flight crew to fly it.” 
During its time here, the aircraft received a new center wing box, replacement of its outer wings, as well as maintenance actions on the plane’s elevator, with parts manufactured with the assistance of the 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group.
To assist with its firefighting capabilities, the plane was installed with a Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System control panel. 
While the remaining part of that modification will take place at another facility, these portable fire retardant delivery systems, once installed on C-130 aircraft, can provide the Forest Service a unique means to suppress wildfires. 
Air Force C-130s equipped with MAFFS provide a surge capability, boosting firefighting efforts when further assistance is needed. Once ready, this particular C-130H outfitted with MAFFS, will be able to discharge a load of up to 3,000 gallons of retardant in less than five seconds, and can be refilled and airborne in less than 20 minutes. 
Wildfires typically occur during the summer months in the western states, and are suppressed by not only firefighters on the ground who help contain fires, but from aircraft in the air who either drop water or fire retardant to reduce the intensity and rate of spread of wildfires, according to the Forest Service. 
In addition to C-130s, numerous other aircraft can assist, such as helicopters; single-engine air tankers; amphibious aircraft known as water scoopers that can skim a body of water’s surface, scooping water into its onboard tank; and DC-10 air tankers that manage fires below. 
C-130s assist when needed with the average 7,500 wildfires that burn each year, devastating about 1.5-million acres of national forests and grasslands.
Created by Congress in the 1970s, the ongoing collaboration between the Forest Service and Defense Department continues to be a vital partnership, with several airlift wings throughout the U.S. that deploy throughout the year to assist with MAFFS missions.MAFFS 



Robins AFB 



C-130 



U.S. Forest Service 



wildfires 



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