Originally Posted by
havick
What you're not accounting for is that the RAAF are already utilising their C130's for what they were intended for in scope. You would essentially be taking a large chunk of the current fleet out of service to be on standby for a separate tasking. If you simply have the current aircraft sitting on standby, then they would not really be dedicated for the task as they could disappear elsewhere at a moments notice for other RAAF tasking.
To add firefighting would realistically need more airframes and more crew and all the infrastructure and knock on effect that would entail.
This. Not only is the plane dedicated to fire standby, to the exclusion of any other activity, but also when it is on contract, during the day, the crew is sitting there at the airplane, or very close, pretty much doing nothing but waiting for a request and ready to start running the before start checklist.
Certainly it is technically feasible for the RAAF to *also* provide this service, *in addition* to what they already do, but the notion that thy could provide this service at no additional cost is silly fantasy.