In August 2021, the day after the fires that ravaged Kabylie, the public authorities decided to acquire airplanes specialized in fighting forest fires. The choice of the Ministry of Defense fell on the water bomber aircraft, Beriev Be-200, from the Russian manufacturer, Beriev Aircraft Company.
The DND services concerned then began negotiations with the said company to the purchase of four (4) BE-200 seaplanes. Devices with a capacity of 13,000 liters and able to intervene in “extreme and complex” weather conditions.
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But a year later, almost to the day, another series of devastating forest fires broke out, this time in the east of the country, without the supplier having time to deliver any of the planes on the order. The state then had to urgently charter a water bomber plane from the Russian Federation. It was precisely a Beriev Be-200.
For the summer of 2023, however, Algeria should not be caught off guard in the fight against possible forest fires. And for good reason, the specialized site menadefense.net announced on January 4, 2023 that “the first Beriev Be-200 water bomber aircraft has completed its flight test campaign and will soon be delivered to Algeria “.
Several Twitter accounts of journalists who are experts in defense and security issues have published a photo of the device from the Taganrog plant (southwest of Russia).
First photo of the Beriev Be 200 SE firefighting aircraft built for the#Algeria it will be delivered in the next few weeks pic.twitter.com/S2lWuVGuKR
— Secretdifa3 Akram Kharief (@secretdifa3) January 4, 2023
Beriev Be-200, a device that has proven itself in the forest fires of 2022
This first Beriev Be-200SE (latest version) is part of a batch of 4 aircraft that DND ordered in August 2021. It is a multi-mission aircraft which can be used for maritime intervention, in search and rescue, as well as for the transport of personnel or as cargo.
A first real-life test of the Russian water bomber was able to be operated during the summer of 2022, when Algeria chartered her for 3 months to fight forest fires in the east of the country. The device had performed 45 drop missions(140 operations) and dumped 800 tons of water . Due to overuse, however, the seaplane had broken down.
First photo of the Beriev Be-200SE water bomber plane that Algeria will receive in the coming weeks.
Our source specifies that this test made it possible to determine the appropriate places for “the prepositioning and the resupply” of the device. Not being yet optimized for the Algerian reliefs, the experts recommended to ” strengthen the BE-200 fleet by smaller and more agile planes and by helicopters”.
Also, the water bomber’s scooping test in dams and lakes was inconclusive because of the “very poor maintenance of the damsand the excessive presence of organic waste floating on the surface of the lakes”. Therefore, the local authorities have started dredging and cleaning of the water bodies to prepare the next firefighting campaigns.
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Remember that, by the summer of 2023, Algeria should have two Beriev BE 200SE. The other two aircraft will reinforce the fleet soon.The seaplanes will be piloted by Algerian crewsand their maintenance ensured by local engineers who accompanied their construction in Russia.
