Dan Wilson, fixed wing parking tender with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, helps to launch a C-130 Hercules equipped with a Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System Aug. 12, 2023, at the Klamath Falls, Ore., Air Tanker Base.

Air Force C-130 cargo planes specially equipped to drop thousands of gallons of wildfire retardant took part in training this week at the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station in Port Hueneme, Calif.

The planes will join the fight when Forest Service-contracted air tankers are all deployed on wildfires. Their usage was unusually high in 2021 and 2020, when they flew hundreds of missions.

The special equipment, called a Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, can be installed in eight C-130s without major structural modifications, according to the Forest Service, which owns the modular systems and supplies the fire retardant.

The systems, which are slid into the back of the plane, can drop up to 3,000 gallons of retardant in less than 10 seconds across a quarter-mile swath.

Last August, two C-130s equipped with the modular systems were stationed at the Klamath Falls Air Tanker Base in Oregon for a month.

“We were seeing increased fire activity from northern California through Oregon, and into Washington as far up as Moses Lake and Wenatchee,” said Kim Christensen, Forest Service deputy assistant director for operations.

The National Interagency Fire Center Predictive Services staff help to determine where the aircraft are based, she said.

Christensen said that “‘20 and ‘21 stand out as two of our busiest fire seasons in recent years.”

In 2021, the C-130s were activated June 23, released Sept. 29 and logged 942 hours of flying, she said. The planes flew for 605 hours in 2020.

The recertification training includes personnel from the Air Force Reserve’s 302nd Airlift Wing, stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; and the host unit, the California Air National Guard’s 146th Airlift Wing. Four C-130s will be used along with several lead planes.

The training, an example of how the Forest Service and other wildland fire agencies work with the military, aims to ensure that the modular systems “can be integrated into fire suppression operations in a safe, effective and seamless manner,” Christensen said in a news release. “It will help ensure our mutual preparedness for the 2024 fire year.”

The training includes classroom sessions, flying — practice water drops are planned in some remote areas of the Angeles National Forest — and ground operations.

Air crews, civilian lead plane pilots and support personnel from the Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other federal and state agencies are involved.

Another session is slated at Channel Islands in May with the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing and the Nevada Air National Guard’s 152nd Airlift Wing.