After the hottest summer Britain has ever recorded, the government has decided that some wildfires are simply out of reach for firefighters on foot. Its answer is in the hangars of the Royal Air Force: the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook et le Atlas A400M airlifter will be fitted with firefighting equipment.

The plan was announced late on 22 October 2026, ahead of a wildfire summit hosted by Prime Minister Andy Burnham with fire chiefs, local leaders and experts. Once equipped, the aircraft will be ready, when requested, to help crews tackle blazes on remote moorland, steep hillsides and other hard-to-reach terrain across the UK.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the new equipment would let the two types tackle wildfires from the skies “for the first time”. The aircraft are the headline in a wider package that includes new protective kit for firefighters, peatland restoration and an artificial intelligence unit to spot fires faster.

What the government announced

According to the government release, the RAF’s Chinooks and A400Ms will be equipped so that they can fight fires and support crews “across the UK”. The release does not say what equipment will be fitted, how many aircraft will be converted, or when the capability will be ready.

Alongside the aircraft, firefighters in England get up to £45 million for additional specialist wildfire teams and lighter, more breathable wildfire-specific protective clothing. A further £25 million will go to restoring dried-out peatland, which can act as a natural firebreak when it holds water.

The release also lists a new Wildfires AI Unit in the National Situation Centre, better wildfire forecasting with the Met Office, and work on England’s first Wildfire Action Plan. It notes that the Met Office found climate change made this summer’s extreme heat around 130 times more likely.

Why a Chinook and an A400M

The two aircraft cover very different jobs. A Chinook can hover over a lake or reservoir, fill an underslung water bucket and drop it with precision on a hillside fire, then go back for more. It is a familiar role for the type: Japan’s CH-47s flew their first overseas firefighting mission in Borneo this year, and US Army and National Guard Chinooks are a regular sight with buckets during American fire seasons.

Forces News on the RAF’s 84 Squadron in Cyprus, whose helicopters fight fires with underslung water buckets.

The A400M works on a different scale. Airbus has been testing a roll-on firefighting kit that turns the airlifter into a water bomber without permanent modification, and France used its own A400M for its first firefighting drop this summer, as Afterburner reported. The UK has not said whether it will use the same system.

The RAF flies its A400M fleet from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Its Chinooks are based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, and RAF Chinook crews have trained for and helped fight wildfires before, notably in Cyprus around the British bases. What is new is a standing role, with dedicated equipment, at home.

From Stourbridge to the summit

The political trigger was a summer of fires close to home. The Prime Minister said he stood in Stourbridge and watched families lose everything, and promised that people would not be put through another summer like it.

For the RAF, firefighting is not a new idea but a new commitment. Military aircraft are expensive to run, and they are always needed elsewhere. The challenge will be making sure an aircraft and a trained crew are actually available on the day a moorland fire breaks out, when the same fleet is also busy flying troops, cargo and operations abroad.

Airbus Defence and Space testing a roll-on firefighting kit on the A400M. The UK has not said which equipment its Atlas fleet will use.

Still, the direction is clear. Britain is following countries such as France and Japan in treating its military airlift fleet as part of the national wildfire response. The real test comes next summer.

Sources: GOV.UK (Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Defence), Reuters, Forces News, Wikipedia (Boeing CH-47 Chinook)