Domestically produced forest fire extinguishing vehicles have the best performance and can even help reduce budgets

The Korea Forest Service (equivalent to the Forestry Agency in Japan) announced that the "Multipurpose Forest Firefighting Vehicle" that was used at the scene of the large forest fires in the spring season was included in the budget performance review of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (equivalent to the Ministry of Finance in Japan) in the first half of this year.
The committee announced on the 20th that it was selected as the best example of "expense saving."
While the need for a specialized firefighting vehicle with a large-capacity water tank specialized for the firefighting vehicle has become apparent, a high-performance firefighting vehicle made overseas has been introduced on a trial basis, but it has not been widely adopted due to the high purchase price and maintenance costs.
In response to this, the Forestry Agency began a research and development project to domestically produce foreign-made forest fire extinguishing vehicles, and has been working to develop a domestic version of the vehicle that maintains superior performance compared to existing foreign-made forest fire extinguishing vehicles.
In April of last year, the company completed the development of a "multipurpose forest fire extinguishing vehicle" that can reduce purchasing costs by 50% while still providing the same level of firefighting capability. According to an analysis by the Forestry Agency, the project will replace eight foreign-made forest fire extinguishing vehicles with 16 domestically produced vehicles.
It was found that if the system is implemented in Japan, it will be possible to reduce purchasing costs by approximately 6 billion won (approximately 637 million yen) per year. The purchasing cost per unit is 750 million won (approximately 80 million yen) if imported.
On the other hand, domestic production will be 375 million won (about 37 million yen). This is the result of the budget cut, which was the highest in the "expenditure savings" category of the budget performance-based pay system for the first half of this year, which is managed by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The six public servants who were selected as outstanding cases and contributed to the project, including aerial firefighters, received a total of 35 million won (US$37,000) in budget performance bonuses.
Park Eun-sik, director of the forest industry policy bureau at the Korea Forest Service, said, "In countries where it is difficult for general fire trucks to access the area,
"A forest firefighting vehicle optimized for mountainous terrain in the country has been developed and distributed with the participation of field experts, bringing innovation to ground-based forest firefighting," he said. "A large-scale firefighting vehicle will also be researched within two years."
"Through this development, we will complete domestic production and build a science and technology-based ground response system for large-scale wildfires."