As wildfire seasons grow more intense, there is increasing demand not only for innovative new solutions, but also for technology with enhanced capabilities that enable faster, more accurate response.
With the growing field of artificial intelligence (AI), opportunities to improve situational awareness, hot spot identification, water drop accuracy, and even overall asset management are becoming more accessible to operators and agencies alike.
OFIL Airborne
OFIL Airborne’s gimbal-mounted sensors and software ecosystem aim to eliminate time-consuming steps in wildfire mapping. Traditionally, a geographic information systems (GIS) specialist would develop an accurate picture of a fire from raw sensor data captured by aircraft after the aircraft landed. OFIL’s solution delivers information-rich maps in real time directly from the helicopter.
OFIL, known for its utility inspection gimbal sensor systems, partnered with wildfire data company Nova Maps to provide detailed fire mapping automatically. Data is processed as onboard sensors detect heat, creating complete georeferenced PDFs that are accessible immediately via cellular or satellite service when available, or as soon as the system can connect to the cloud.
“The pilot doesn’t need to be a GIS guy,” said OFIL director of airborne solutions Ray Hyland. “Just fly over the area to map, and it’s an automated process from data gathering to Geo-PDFs, making it easy for decision-makers or ground crews to take action fast.”
OFIL also provides long-wave infrared (IR) sensors as part of its package. Unlike the mid-wave systems commonly used in law enforcement applications, OFIL’s long-wave IR measures temperatures to within one-tenth of a degree, allowing operators to differentiate between a true hot spot and other targets such as animals or heat-soaked rock faces.
The new sensor also addresses a longstanding industry challenge by incorporating a continuous five-times optical zoom that maintains full radiometric accuracy. This allows efficient wide area mapping from altitude while allowing crews to zoom in to confirm and measure hot spots without repositioning the aircraft.
Overwatch Imaging
Overwatch Imaging combines multispectral hardware with AI-driven software to detect fires and map fire line perimeters in real time, autonomously.
Designed for wide-area mapping, the company’s TK-8 Smart Sensor captures still images across five spectral bands — RGB high-definition color, near-infrared, short-wave infrared, medium-wave infrared, and long-wave infrared — combining them with onboard processing to create comprehensive fire maps.
Because different infrared bands penetrate smoke and reveal heat signatures in different ways, the multispectral system can detect smoldering lightning strikes deep in forest terrain, even through thick smoke, and accurately map the perimeter of an actively burning fire. Radiometric calibration allows operators to fine-tune heat thresholds, reducing false positives from hot rooftops or sunbaked rock.
Where Overwatch stands out is its automation. The company’s Automated Sensor Operator (ASO) software, which can be installed to work with third-party EO/IR video gimbals — not just Overwatch’s own systems — automatically steers the sensor and collects imagery within an operator designated area from any altitude.
“It really takes the guesswork and the heavy workload off the operators, so they’re not having to manually steer things or manually map things,” said Jesse Thrush, business development director at Overwatch. “It allows them to focus more on looking at the fire, rather than looking for it.”
Processing happens onboard the sensor payload itself, producing georeferenced fire perimeter maps and hotspot detections in real time. The data can be streamed to ground-based incident commanders, pushed automatically to the cloud via cellular or satellite services, or offloaded to a hard drive upon landing if connectivity is unavailable in flight.
FlySight OPENSIGHT
FlySight’s OPENSIGHT software incorporates information from multiple sources into an augmented moving map to increase situational awareness and provide a comprehensive picture of a fire.
The software geo-references every pixel from sensor video captured by surveillance airplanes, helicopters, and drones. The video is then combined in real or near real time with satellite imagery and the GPS positions of firefighters on the ground to create a common operational picture of the fire, complete with hot spots and fire lines.
In addition to providing incident commanders and airborne teams with detailed geo-referenced information on the fire, OPENSIGHT is also used to support fleet management and help coordinate firefighting operations.
“For water drop efficiency, it gathers data from airborne sources and ground GPS locations during a drop,” explained FlySight head of engineering Mattia Carpin. “You can see where and how it dropped, and then coordinate successive flights, avoiding repeated drops when they’re not needed.”
FlySight sells OPENSIGHT either as part of a turnkey mission console or as a software development kit (SDK). The SDK option allows system integrators to embed FlySight’s capabilities into their own platforms. Leonardo Helicopters has integrated the SDK into multiple aircraft, including the AW139s operated by the Vigili del Fuoco (the Italian national firefighting agency).
“Integrating multiple systems and onboarding multiple data relies on the architecture of the helicopter and plane,” Carpin said. “The system integrator typically takes our capabilities and integrates them into a larger platform. That is what we have seen with Leonardo.”
Airbus innovations
While not yet available, Airbus is exploring a connected ecosystem concept for aerial firefighting aimed at improving both efficiency and safety. The OEM surveyed operators around the world to identify ways it could support aerial firefighting and quickly narrowed its focus to the need for greater connectivity between stakeholders.
“Today, air and ground crews rely on radio communication, but they wanted more data exchange to help guarantee the safety of ground crews when aerial firefighting operations are taking place,” said Olivier Chalvet, senior new business manager of defense and wildfire solutions at Airbus.
“We realized we have the technology at Airbus from different divisions, mostly the defense world, to initiate an ecosystem where interoperability and connectivity are key drivers.”
Airbus recently demonstrated how this ecosystem could work by creating what it called a “connectivity bubble,” in which small quadcopter drones, a manned Airbus H130 helicopter, fixed-wing aircraft, and an Airbus Aliaca tactical fixed-wing drone operated safely in the same airspace through data sharing during a simulated fire.
The 3.5-hour scenario began with small quadcopters deployed from the ground to assess the fire and local weather conditions. Command and control used data from the drones to select an attack point and send precise guidance to manned aircraft, while the tactical drone maintained a bird’s-eye view from segregated higher altitude airspace, transmitting sensor data on fire behavior back to command and control.
While the scenario was simply a proof of concept, Chalvet said the demonstration highlighted how connectivity, drones, and guidance software could improve the efficiency of water drop operations.
Tabula FireVision
Tabula’s FireVision connects aircraft, command center teams, and field personnel through a comprehensive aerial firefighting guidance and coordination system.
The system tracks aircraft and ground teams using real-time data from low IR sensors mounted on firefighting aircraft and GPS location data. Using AI to stitch together imagery from all aircraft, FireVision creates a continuously updated fire map in near real time. The map is superimposed on satellite imagery of the area, with clearly marked locations of aircraft and ground teams, weather data, obstacles, and more.
The continuously updated map is accessible through the FireVision onboard console, in the command-and-control center, and to field teams through the mobile app, providing situational awareness and improving safety for all stakeholders.
The map itself — and awareness of everyone’s location — is only the starting point. Incident commanders can add overlays highlighting large air tanker (LAT) zones when a LAT is on approach, designated rotorcraft zones, obstacles not shown on charts, the current fire line, and even specific approach corridors and drop locations for water and retardant. These additions are immediately pushed to all connected systems, ensuring everyone sees the same information.
“Drawing corridors and custom drop lines right into FireVision provides clear tasking for pilots,” explained Michael Whittaker, CEO at Tabula. “The pilot doesn’t have to interpret directions like, ‘follow the ridgeline until you see a farm shed, then 20 meters after that, drop.’ They see the clear corridor to fly through to line up properly, and when they’re over the drop spot, the system alerts them to release. The pilot can focus on safely flying the drop, not looking down, trying to identify where to drop, and watching for aircraft and ground crews. They are all identified on the screen. It considerably reduces pilot workload and fatigue.”
Voxelis VoxVision
Voxelis’ VoxVision is a lightweight, AI-enabled sensor system designed to fill a gap in firefighting intelligence.
“There are some incredible high-end gimbal sensor systems out there, but they are heavy, expensive, and sometimes require an operator, which makes it cost-prohibitive to have them in a lot of aircraft on a fire,” explained Voxelis co-founder Colin O’Neill. “On the other end are drones that are unsafe to mix with manned aircraft, so they have operational limitations when it comes to constant data gathering. Our product fills the gap with low-cost sensors that can be mounted on all helicopters fighting a fire, constantly capturing data for a detailed picture of what’s going on in real time.”
VoxVision is a 15-pound (7-kilogram) gimbal-mounted system currently certified under a supplemental type certificate (STC) for the Airbus AS350/H125, with STCs for other aircraft underway.
It contains a downward-facing RGB camera for mapping and 3D reconstruction, along with a near-infrared (NIR) sensor for multispectral data collection. Both are optimized for operations at altitudes up to 1,500 feet (457 meters) above ground level.
Also onboard are two AI computers powered by Nvidia chips for real-time processing, geo-tagging, and the identification of hot spots, burned areas, and more, as well as environmental sensors that collect relative humidity, temperature, pressure, and wind direction data.
The system sends consistently processed imagery incorporating data from all of these sensors to the Voxelis cloud portal through any IP-based telemetry connection — Starlink, LTE, 3G, etc. — where it is accessible on tablets and computers. A tablet onboard the aircraft makes the imagery immediately available to the pilot, while command and control and ground teams can access it through any internet-accessible device.
Additional features include automating sensor operation within a designated area and allowing ground teams to remotely control the sensors. Voxelis also integrates with ESRI ArcGIS, allowing agencies that use the fire-mapping technology to access fire maps and add them as a layer within their GIS data.
CAURUS Technologies
German startup CAURUS Technologies developed its cost effective external digital water drop guidance system to address a core aerial firefighting challenge: understanding the impact each water drop has on a fire. The sensor system is designed to be an AI-enabled eye above the bucket, helping operators increase water use efficiency, improve drop precision, enhance safety, and reduce complexity.
Weighing less than 44 lb. (20 kg), the fully self-contained, self-powered system is mounted in-line on the long line above any standard firefighting bucket. It uses visual-spectrum and infrared cameras, onboard computing, and a GNSS-based positioning and motion unit.
Currently, the system measures water volume, surface area covered on the ground, the exact position of the drop, and resulting water density (liters per square meter). It also captures before and after heat profiles using infrared imagery, allowing firefighters and command staff to see how much a fire’s intensity changed after a drop and determine whether another drop is needed, ground crews can move in, or the aircraft should shift to another target.
Several systems are being deployed with launch customers for operation during the 2026 fire season, with CAURUS working alongside them to gather data and further develop the technology ahead of its market launch. During the season, the team will collect a larger dataset to train its machine learning models. The goal is to add automated corrections for factors such as wind, drift, terrain, altitude, and aircraft speed, and then generate recommendations for future drops to improve efficiency.
“Fires are not only getting hotter and bigger, but many places around the world are also experiencing water scarcity,” explained Philippe Telle, CEO and co-founder of CAURUS Technologies. “Being able to track water drop density and effectiveness has a large effect on mission success. A half-second improvement in reaction time can achieve a 20% efficiency gain, conserving water and enhancing outcomes.”
The system can send data to ground command systems, helicopter displays, or both, depending on how it is integrated. While it can interface with a variety of display options, a standalone tablet-style display is also available.
TracPlus
New Zealand-based software company TracPlus designed its FireFlyte solution to increase contract accountability and help aircraft operators make informed safety and operational decisions during a fire season and beyond.
The cloud-based platform tracks reportable fire contract fleet operations before, during, and after each flight, automatically compiling data that was traditionally gathered manually and often remained fragmented. This data includes documentation of drop counts, volumes, timing, coverage, and performance, which feeds directly into agency contract reporting to help avoid billing disputes.
“Agencies can already see drop performance data through aerial firefighting systems,” TracPlus chief product and revenue officer Todd O’Hara shared. “Many operators cannot see the same data about their own aircraft. They are being evaluated against metrics they cannot access. TracPlus closes that gap. Operators gain visibility into the same performance records their contracting agencies see, which changes contract conversations considerably.”
O’Hara also emphasized that the system saves considerable time, generating full compliance reports in minutes rather than requiring weeks of manual administrative effort.
Beyond accountability, the customizable FireFlyte system helps operators gain insight into operational performance, safety and risk management, and financial metrics, supporting more informed decision-making. Additional modules include fleet monitoring, engine cycle tracking, SOP alerts, terrain analysis, ADS-B integration, cost tracking, billing, and more.
The platform also integrates satellite, cellular, and ADS-B tracking into a single data trail rather than separate streams, providing reliable, higher resolution tracking for safety and accountability, especially in congested airspace.
The platform is hardware-agnostic, integrating with existing tracking systems, APIs, and real-time data feeds across mixed fleets.