{"id":2044,"date":"2025-05-01T13:51:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T13:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caurus-technologies.com\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2025-05-01T13:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T13:53:56","slug":"rueckblick-auf-die-aerial-fire-fighting-europe-conference-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caurus-technologies.com\/en\/news\/rueckblick-auf-die-aerial-fire-fighting-europe-conference-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from the Aerial Firefighting Europe Conference 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steht\n
This year, Henrik and Philippe Telle participated for the second time at the Aerial Fire Fighting Europe Conference 2025. This time with the CAURUS sensor prototype.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n

CAURUS Technologies spent two intensive days at the Aerial Firefighting Europe Conference in Bordeaux, France, from March 26 to 27, 2025. Co-founders Philippe und Henrik Telle rubbed shoulders with other firefighting entrepreneurs and most importantly firefighting practitioners. The CAURUS sensor platform was even presented to a larger audience in the innovation part of a presentation by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the W\u00fcrzburg Firefighting Academy. Representatives of the two organisations shared their experience with firefighting innovation and efforts to prepare for increasingly fierce fire seasons also in Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Much of the two-day discussions revolved around three major questions:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. 1) Are our capacities and capabilities sufficient to adequately respond to changing fire patterns?<\/li>\n\n
  2. 2)\tHow can firefighting innovation be financed?<\/li>\n\n
  3. 3)\tAnd can existing capacities be efficiently extended and upgraded to manage cycle times and maintenance better?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Here are some of our personal takeaways from the AFFE 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

    \"Illustrates\n
    Representatives of the State Firefighters' Academy W\u00fcrzburg share their experience with the CAURUS sensor<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n

    Changing wildfires patterns and the capacity crisis<\/h2>\n\n

    The challenges posed by changing wildfire patterns exacerbated by climate change are becoming increasingly visible. Wildfires now are occurring out of \u201cfire seasons\u201d. Yet, forward-looking fire season planning isn\u2019t mainstream everywhere yet and preemptive planning only ever comes up as a topic when the fires are already raging. \u201cExceptional events\u201d now seem to occur every year\u201d, just in different places of the globe. And more area is burnt every year: in 2023, fires in Canada burnt the total area of the past 20 years in just one year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\nAuch die Investitionen der letzten Jahrzehnte spiegeln nicht das ver\u00e4nderte Brandverhalten wider. Ein Gro\u00dfteil des Konstruktionsdesigns und der Technologie der alternden L\u00f6schflugzeugflotten stammt aus den 1960er Jahren. Vielerorts ist die Ausr\u00fcstung knapper als der Bedarf, was dazu f\u00fchrt, dass so manche Bitte um zus\u00e4tzliche Unterst\u00fctzung aus benachbarten Regionen oder Staaten unbeantwortet bleibt. Innovationen und neue Technologien zur Waldbrandbek\u00e4mpfung sind nach wie vor knapp. Und selbst dort, wo ausreichende Finanzmittel zur Verf\u00fcgung stehen, ist die erforderliche Technologie nicht immer verf\u00fcgbar: einige \u00f6ffentliche Ausschreibungen blieben in letzter Zeit trotz deutlicher Bereitschaft zu h\u00f6heren Preisen ohne Angebote.\u00a0\n\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    At the same time, Ideas and projects are fortunately increasing: development of new aircrafts, small drone-transport enabled water deploying equipment, new retardants or extinguishing agents. Yet, development times of aerial firefighting innovation like new airtankers can take years. Development is costly, and purchasing costs are not limited to the gear \u201conly\u201d: costs for building hangars, maintenance and required certification impede the renewal of existing fleets.<\/p>\n\n

    Firefighting department budgets are limited, and additional short-term funding often becomes available only when governments are faced with large-scale, attention-grabbing emergencies. But even such short-term funding cannot procure breakthrough firefighting innovation where there is none or it is still in development.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

    Continuous asset management focussing on upgrading and efficiency\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n

    The alternative solution to this predicament must be long-term and continuous capacity planning and existing asset management. Not only maintenance of existing equipment, but also increasing efficiency through incremental, cost-efficient upgrades come into focus. One US American state provides an interesting case in point: when relevant authorities was faced with massive fires, they realized they were lacking capacities. They requested external help did not arrive as other states also fought fires during the same period and suffered the same problem: limited and ageing firefighting fleets. As a reaction, the authority decided to ramp up their own fleet over the span of five years from 13 aerial means in 2018 to 44 aerial means in 2024, investing around half a billion US dollars. In addition, over a period of three years they spent an additional 120 million USD for maintenance. This situation triggered a rethinking on how to plan budgets for firefighting needs. Today, their budget foresees an annual amount of 50 million US$ for maintenance. The key takeaway here: to keep old and new assets operational, about 10% of the purchasing price should be factored in for maintenance annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

    The CAURUS \u201cbottom line\u201d of AFFE 2025<\/h2>\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n

    Vorhandene Kapazit\u00e4ten sind \u00fcberall knapp, und die Anschaffung innovativer gro\u00dfer Flugger\u00e4te zur Brandbek\u00e4mpfung ist kostspielig. Eine aktive Haushaltsplanung muss die Notwendigkeit von Modernisierungen und Kapazit\u00e4tserweiterungen im Laufe der Zeit ber\u00fccksichtigen. Sie sollte aber auch \u00dcberlegungen einschlie\u00dfen, wie vorhandene Mittel und Kapazit\u00e4ten mit weniger kostspieligen, aber ebenso wirksamen Instrumenten aufger\u00fcstet werden k\u00f6nnen. Zum Beispiel Technologien\u00a0zur digitale Datenerfassung und -verarbeitung, welche\u00a0“immaterielle”, aber sehr effektive Verbesserungen priorisieren:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n