UAS manufacturer Drone America and aircraft manufacturer Thrush Aircraft have formed a strategic alliance to begin the development of the world’s first autonomous air tanker, which would add to the arsenal of airborne tactics available to firefighters and first responders when fighting wildfires.

The new tanker is expected to mix Thrush’s large airframe and airborne delivery system expertise with Drone America’s “Ariel” amphibious platform, producing an aircraft capable of delivering approximately 800 gallons of water or fire retardant, autonomously.

The aircraft will also be built to conduct long-duration tactical surveillance flights over a fire, which will provide on the ground real-time understanding of conditions and fire behavior for firefighters, operations managers, and public safety coordinators.

“As the almost incomprehensible devastation of the 2017 fire season has shown, there is virtually no limit to the level of destruction to property and natural environments wildfires can cause,” says Mike Richards, president and CEO of Drone America.

“We founded our company on the belief that highly-reliable, well-integrated autonomous systems can significantly improve public and environmental safety. Our collaboration with Thrush represents a major step forward in achieving that goal, and we’re excited to be joining forces in the fight against one of our country’s most challenging foes: wildland fires.”

At this point in time, only manned air tankers are used in airborne firefighting operations. Manned tankers are restricted from fighting fires during night hours, but it is during this “dark window” that autonomous tankers can really thrive, as they can take advantage of the cooler night temperatures and reduced fire activity to support tactical ground operations, while taking pilots out of harm’s way.

Unmanned air tankers equipped with infrared cameras, sensors and integrated communications equipment are also ideal for systematically mapping and communicating fire intensity, rate and direction of spread.

This “high-level, on-scene intelligence gathering” helps greatly enhance the safety of civilians and firefighters on the ground, and it helps solve a major issue related to disaster response, which is “linking voice and data transmissions across different and otherwise incompatible communication systems.”