The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the Department of the Interior have undertaken nine major efforts since 1995 to identify the number and type of firefighting aircraft they need, but those efforts have been hampered by limited information and collaboration, GAO has said in calling for improvements in information, collaboration and planning.
The studies and strategy documents the departments have produced have not incorporated information on the performance and effectiveness of firefighting aircraft, which the Forest Service only began collecting in 2012, according to GAO-13-684.
It said the Forest Service has collected limited data on large air tankers – used to drop fire retardant – but not any other aircraft, and Interior has not initiated a data collection effort on the kinds of smaller tankers and water scoopers.
The agencies generally agreed with recommendations to expand efforts to collect information on the performance and effectiveness of firefighting aircraft and enhance collaboration across agencies and the fire aviation community.
