Rain and Sikorsky show autonomous wildfire suppression over live fire in California

Rain and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, have demonstrated autonomous wildfire suppression technology in a representative wildfire environment for the first time in California. 

The goal: familiarize the California fire community with the potential of autonomy to improve the safety, efficiency and efficacy of wildfire response with optionally piloted firefighting helicopters. The activities took place over a period of two weeks in Hesperia, California and included a wide range of wildfire response missions and tasks, including finding and suppressing early-stage wildfires. 

“Sikorsky and Rain have integrated two autonomy systems: our MATRIX™ technology that controls the flight of any crewed or uncrewed aircraft, and Rain’s wildfire mission autonomy system that finds and tracks the fire, develops a suppression plan, and navigates the aircraft to drop water onto the target,” said Sikorsky Vice President and General Manager Rich Benton. “With this layered autonomy system, incident commanders and pilots can choose a level of autonomy suitable for their mission, adding new features as they experience improved flight safety gains and enhanced suppression functionality.”

The autonomous wildfire suppression tests in late April were the first performed by Rain and Sikorsky in California over live fires in wildfire-prone terrain; at 3,300-ft altitude; sometimes in wind gusts up to 30 knots (35 mph). The tests were performed in close collaboration with firefighters from the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District, who built and set fire to multiple brush piles for the aircraft to find and suppress with water.

“These initial attack flight tests on early-stage wildfires were of the highest value to Rain and Sikorsky as we mature our combined autonomy solution, and a great first step for aerial firefighters to learn how autonomy can help a pilot suppress wildfire with greater safety and accuracy,” said Rain CEO Maxwell Brodie. “We thank California’s firefighters for their considerable interest and for helping us showcase the benefits of autonomy as a tool to support the safety, efficacy, and efficiency of wildfire response.” 

Firsts for California 

A Rain tablet remotely commanded water drops by Sikorsky’s optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter during extreme weather conditions—a suppression drop in 20 knots of wind and an autonomous bucket fill in 30 knot winds.

An image of the first demonstrated communication interoperability of an autonomous aircraft with a human-piloted helicopter in the same Fire Traffic Area, supervised by an Orange County Fire Authority air tactical group supervisor aircraft (HLCO). As fire agencies build experience with autonomous aircraft operating as commanded on dedicated branches of mature fires, it becomes possible to layer autonomous aircraft into daisy chain suppression and other cooperative missions in the fire traffic area.

Over the course of 24 hours of flight time in California, Rain and Sikorsky showed end to end autonomous rapid initial attack in a real-world fire environment with real-time flight path adjustments to deliver water on the fire.

Air to air photo by Ted Carlson.

In collaboration with the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District, Rain and Sikorsky showed the very first deployment of autonomous wildfire suppression technology in California—including operations over live fire.

A Rain tablet remotely commanded water drops by Sikorsky’s optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter during extreme weather conditions—a suppression drop in 20 knots of wind and an autonomous bucket fill in 30 knot winds

Rain and Sikorsky demonstrated the very first deployment of autonomous wildfire suppression technology in California—including operations over both propane test rigs and over live fire.

Over the course of two weeks Rain and Sikorsky completed several firsts during our California autonomous wildfire suppression technology demonstrations, including: 

● The very first deployment of autonomous wildfire suppression technology in California—including operations over live fire, in collaboration with the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District 

● First demonstrated communication interoperability of an autonomous aircraft with a human-piloted helicopter in the same Fire Traffic Area, supervised by an Orange County Fire Authority air tactical group supervisor aircraft (HLCO) 

● End to end autonomous rapid initial attack in a real-world fire environment with real-time flight path adjustments to deliver water on the fire 

● A Rain tablet remotely commanded water drops by Sikorsky’s optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter during extreme weather conditions—a suppression drop in 20 knots of wind and an autonomous bucket fill in 30 knot winds 

Engagement with Fire Agencies 

Close collaboration with fire professionals and partnership with fire agencies is at the core of how we work at Rain—and while we love a good whiteboard session or time spent on our simulator, nothing beats being in the field! Throughout the flight testing period, Rain and Sikorsky hosted representatives from visiting agencies who were able to gain first-hand experience with both the technology and the innovation process, observing as our teams integrated learnings and made adjustments to the system. 

Over approximately 24 hours of flight time, fire professionals representing CAL FIRE, San Bernardino County Fire District, Orange County Fire Authority, and the U.S. Forest Service visited the test site in Hesperia and were able to see how a Rain tablet commanded Sikorsky’s MATRIX-equipped optionally piloted Black Hawk helicopter from the ground, demonstrating several features of our wildfire mission autonomy system: 

• Tablet-commanded missions and tasks, including, area search, single drop, and bucket fill 

• Multiple video streams from the aircraft overlaid with real-time fire location, supporting enhanced situational awareness for the operator 

• Accurately dropped water as commanded. Coverage levels were correct, based on firefighter review 

Chief Dan Munsey, San Bernardino County Fire District remarked, “Of all the tools we have to keep wildfires small, none are more effective than rapid suppression on initial attack of a wildfire. Autonomous aircraft—both crewed and uncrewed—can increase flexibility and capacity for on-the-ground incident commanders, ultimately saving lives and property for the communities we serve." 

The Road Ahead 

The Black Hawk helicopter is similar to the Firehawk™ helicopter flown by CAL FIRE, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, San Diego County among others. The Sikorsky and Rain autonomy systems installed on the Black Hawk helicopter used in these demonstrations is also compatible with the Firehawk. Existing Black Hawk and Firehawk helicopters can be upgraded, or the system can be installed on new aircraft. 

CAL FIRE and local fire departments across California operate 24 Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk helicopters, each equipped with a 1,000-gallon belly-mounted water tank. Three more Firehawk helicopters are to be delivered to CAL FIRE this year. 

“Firehawks are trusted for their robust capabilities, and are well known for their ability to navigate in extreme wind conditions and carry a large quantity of suppressant,” said Chief Brian Fennessy, of Orange County Fire Authority. “This Black Hawk helicopter equipped with Sikorsky MATRIX and Rain autonomy is the ideal aircraft to introduce the potential of autonomy to the California fire community.” 

It takes a community 

Members of the California wildfire community participated in a hands-on Black Hawk® helicopter experience at the conclusion of the flight campaign. The gathering of local, state leading fire professionals, all three of California’s electric utilities, insurers, philanthropies, researchers, and investors familiarized fire leaders in the state of California with the nation’s first autonomous firefighting aircraft.

PG&E’s Andy Abranches spoke in front of members of the California wildfire community at the conclusion of a successful flight campaign that was supported in part through Pacific Gas and Electric Company's research and development efforts.

Kate Dargan Marquis of the Moore Foundation, Chief Dan Munsey of San Bernardino Fire and Director Joe Tyler of CAL FIRE spoke in front of members of the California wildfire community at the conclusion of a successful flight campaign.

Rain CEO, Maxwell Brodie, spoke to ABC Eyewitness News reporter, Rob McMillan.

Rain CEO Maxwell Brodie spoke with NBC Nightly News correspondent Brian Cheung.

Members of the California wildfire community participated in a hands-on Black Hawk® helicopter experience at the conclusion of a successful flight campaign. The gathering of local, state leading fire professionals, all three of California’s electric utilities, insurers, philanthropies, researchers, and investors familiarized fire leaders in the state of California with the nation’s first autonomous firefighting aircraft.

We are infinitely grateful to our partners, whose support made this demonstration a reality and advanced our aim to equip fire agencies with new tools to help end catastrophic wildfires. Special thanks to PG&E, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Silverwood development, San Bernardino County Fire, and Wildfire Water Solutions. 

The demonstration was supported in part through Pacific Gas and Electric Company's research and development efforts. Administered through PG&E's Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program, the project explores how drone-enabled and autonomous wildfire suppression technologies can reduce response times, reduce risk of ignitions becoming catastrophic wildfires, and reduce operating costs for field crews.

Learn more 

Read our joint press release with Sikorsky about the demonstration on Lockheed Martin’s website, on PG&E’s website and watch the first of several news stories on ABC 7 Eyewitness News. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements, and keep in touch with the Rain community by following us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and X.