AF3 is a collaborative project carried out by a consortium of nineteen members from ten countries. Among the members there are universities, research technology organizations, public administrations, fire-extinguishing agencies, large companies and small medium enterprises.

In the last few years, the large-scale forest fires has increased their importance due to several factors such as the expansion of wildland urban interface (WUI), poor landscape and forest management and arson fires. These so-called “Mega-fires” are constituted by interacting simultaneous fires with extreme fire behavior across a large geographic area, they usually cross ownership boundaries and involve different jurisdictions and urbanized areas. Therefore, they are particularly destructive and difficult to control with the technologies and systems currently available to fire fighters and emergency agencies.  Faced with this challenge, European Commission through the Seventh Framework Program, in the “Security research theme”, funds the Project called Advanced Forest Fire Fighting (AF3), “preparedness for and management of large scale forest fires”. It intends to provide an extraordinary improvement to the efficiency of current fire-fighting operations and to the protection of human lives, the environment and property by developing innovative technologies and means to ensure a high level of integration between existing and new systems.

To reach this objective, AF3 project focuses on the following areas:• Innovative active countermeasure: implementation of the novel

AAFF (Advanced Aerial Fire Fighting) system to accurately and safely disperse extinguishing materials from high altitude by aircrafts and helicopters in any condition: day and night, regardless of weather, smoke and configuration of terrain. It will enable a quick 24H response, minimizing fire duration and damages. The AAFF system can be adapted to a wide variety of aircrafts or helicopters.

• Innovative passive countermeasures: fast build-up of preventive defensive lines of capsules to prevent the spreading of fire from forest to populated areas

• Early detection and monitoring: integration and deployment of diverse systems including satellites, aeroplanes, UAVs, and both mobile and stationary ground systems for the early detection of fire and for monitoring the propagation of smoke and toxic clouds.

• Integrated crisis management: the innovative AF3 Core Expert Engine will perform overall coordination of all fire fighting missions. It will integrate three complex systems:

1. A Command and Control centre.2. A Risk Analysis Tool (to assess health risks to humans, livestock

and infrastructure).3. A Decision Support and Fire Fighting Simulator Lab (to predict

progression of the fire and the effectiveness of the active and passive countermeasures).

• Advanced public information channels: smart phones, internet and dedicated broadcasting will be integrated in the global system.

The results of AF3 will be validated by intermediate tests during the project, and by a final demonstration with flight tests and drilling exercises carried out simultaneously in Spain, Italy, Greece and Israel.

AF3 Advanced Forest Firefighting Project