California Air National Guard C-130J MAFFS Flight Deck Footage Hughes Fires

U.S. Air National Guard Maj. John-Mark Koetitz, a pilot with the 115th Airlift Squadron, pilots a California National Guard MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System) equipped C-130J Super Hercules over the Hughes Fire in Castaic, California, Jan. 22, 2025. All 8 MAFFS C-130s assigned to the aerial firefighting mission were launched in support to CAL FIRE wildland firefighting operations in Southern California. Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS) are the U.S. Forest Service’s portable fire-retardant delivery systems and can be inserted into military C-130 aircraft without major structural modifications to convert them into airtankers when needed.

They can discharge their entire load of up to 3,000 gallons of retardant in less than five seconds, covering an area one-quarter of a mile long by 100 feet wide, or they can make variable drops. Once a load is discharged from a MAFFS-equipped aircraft, and the aircraft lands at a tanker base, it can be refilled in less than 12 minutes.

Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS)-equipped aircraft units come from the following wings: the Air Force Reserve Command’s 302nd Airlift Wing, Peterson SFB, Colorado; the Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing, Cheyenne, Wyoming; the 146th Airlift Wing, Port Hueneme, California; and the 152nd Airlift Wing, Reno, Nevada. U.S. Transportation Command activates these aircraft through its Air Mobility Command in support of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).