Banožić: We are ready for the firefighting season

Minister of Defense Mario Banožić said on Tuesday that Croatia is ready for the firefighting season, in which up to five Canadair tanker planes, six air tractors, one helicopter, a Pilatus aircraft and about 200 soldiers will fight fires.

“16.3 million euros have been secured for this year's fire season,” said Mario Banožić, who attended the opening of the First SK@UT Conference organized by the Security and Intelligence Agency.

The firefighting season is planned in agreement with the Croatian Firefighting Association, and orders will be issued in the firefighting command center.

Mario Banožić said that Croatia will continue to be ready to help other countries in the fight against fires as part of the "rescue mechanism". In previous years, assistance was provided to neighboring countries - Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also to other countries that requested assistance, such as Greece and Turkey.

Aircraft maintenance

Banožić said that in the Aviation Technical Institute, which maintains the Canadair, the Ministry took measures to make everything work, considering last year's problem when most of the Canadairs were not ready for the season.

“We took certain actions regarding the improvement of communication in the system in order to improve certain things, reduce some challenges, and this can be seen in the number of firefighting planes that will be ready for the season,” said Banožić.

He also touched on the topic of cyber threats and said that interdepartmental cooperation is key to defense and that the Ministry of Defense is successfully fighting attacks.

Source: HRT