The government is commencing the development of high-performance domestic wildfire suppression vehicles to respond to large-scale wildfires.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 19th that they had selected the development of high-performance large wildfire suppression vehicles as a research and development project to enhance wildfire response capabilities through the “Emergency Response Research for National Safety” project.
The purpose of the Emergency Response Research for National Safety is to quickly derive solutions to disaster and safety issues with science and technology and apply them in the field. This topic was selected in consultation with the Korea Forest Service and disaster safety experts after recent large-scale wildfires in the Gyeongbuk and Gyeongnam regions.
The goal of this research is to domestically produce both the body and equipment of high-performance large wildfire suppression vehicles, which have relied entirely on foreign imports, by modifying military vehicles. The development of wildfire suppression vehicles equipped with water tanks of a 6,000-liter capacity, double that of the Kamov (KA-32) wildfire suppression helicopter, is being pursued.
Previously, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety developed and verified the performance of domestic medium-sized wildfire suppression vehicles with a 2,020-liter water capacity and high-performance pumps. Based on this, the Korea Forest Service is preparing to additionally introduce 64 units next year.
In countries like France, wildfire suppression vehicles with water capacities of 6,000 liters or more are already being used to respond to large-scale wildfires, but domestically, there are only 3,500-liter capacity vehicles, most of which are imported.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety are providing approximately 900 million won annually in research and development funds for this research, and the research institution will be selected through a public contest in June.
Jung Taek-ryeol, Policy Officer for Public Convergence Research at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “We will quickly pursue the research reflecting the needs of the field for wildfire response and apply the results to the field.”
Seo Nam-kyo, Director of the Social Disaster Policy Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated, “This research will contribute not only to responding to large-scale wildfires but also to protecting the public’s lives.”