Production of 12 new Canadian aircraft will begin

The European Commission confirmed on Thursday that the production of 12 new DHC 515 firefighting aircraft, an improved version of the Canadair 415, is underway.

The Commission said in its official announcement that the 12 aircraft would be permanently based in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, and would form the backbone of the European forest firefighting fleet (rescEU ).

The plane will be financed by the European Commission.

Before the final agreement was signed, individual and bilateral agreements were signed between the EU member states participating in the program and the Canadian authorities.