Analysis of 2011 fire fighting season

The analysis was attended by the Deputy Chief of General Staff for Operations Rear Admiral Zdenko Simicic, Commander of the CAF Fire Fighting Task Force (FF TF) Major General Mate Obradovic, Commander of the Air Force and Air Defence, Brigadier General Drazen Scuri, Commander of the Operational Command Centre Brigadier General Vlado Sindler and chiefs of GS directorates.

CAF FF TF Commander Major General Mate Obradovic stressed that this year’s fire fighting season was the most challenging to date in terms of number of fires and interventions, as well as by the most intense engagement of the CAF. Thus, the CAF FF TF was engaged at the scene 297 times (in 2010 – 90 times), where the Air Force made 1964 flight hours, and threw over 52,000 tons of water (in 2010 – 1299 flight hours and 23,997 tons of water). “The specific involvement of airpower in fire fighting was that often fire broke out simultaneously in different locations, and air force pilots were often immediately shifted from one fire place to another”, General Obradovic said. He also noted the contribution of other CAF FF TF components in fire fighting activities, adding to the end that all the tasks were done promptly and efficiently.

For fire fighting activities in this year the MOD spent around 73.5 million kuna.

CAF FF TF was composed of parts of the Croatian Army, the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence, the Croatian Navy and the Special Operations Battalion. For this year’s fire fighting season, which began on May 1 and lasted until 31 October, a total of 16 aircraft were deployed (6 CL-415 aircraft, 6 AT-802 A / F aircraft and 4 Mi-8 MTV-1 helicopters).