On 17 April 2023, the Slovenian government ordered four Air Tractor AT-802F Fire Boss aircraft to be used by the Slovenian Civil Protection Service (CPS) for firefighting duties.
According to Defence minister, Marjan Šarec, the first two aircraft will be delivered coming June, with the remaining two aircraft to be delivered in 2024. The decision to buy the firefighting aircraft was made after disastrous wild fires in the Karst region last summer.
The Pratt & Whitney PT-6A powered AT-802F Fire Boss is a dedicated firefighting version of the Air Tractor AT-802. Since 2003 more than 100 examples of this float equipped version were built. Thanks to the scoops in its floats, the Fire Boss can take up 3000 litres of water within seconds.
The AT-802F is also used by other countries in the Western Balkans as Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBH) announced plans to buy the aircraft in October 2021.
Source: scramble
