US Air Force (USAF) firefighters will soon be equipped with a new vehicle, the P-34 rapid intervention vehicle (RIV).
The P-34 RIV is a small agile vehicle designed to accommodate three firefighters and their equipment and will be in the air force inventory for a minimum of 12 years.
The vehicle also has two 200ft hand lines that output 15gal of liquid a minute to allow firefighters to perform interior firefighting operations and rescue.
The RIV will replace the older P-19 vehicles, which have been in service with the AF crash response since the 1980s.
AFCESA firefighting subject matter expert Jim Podolske said: “This will be the first firefighting vehicle in the USAF to use new ultra-high-pressure firefighting technology.”
The ultra-high-pressure technology allows the vehicle to discharge a mixture of water and firefighting foam three to three-and-a-half times more effectively than conventional firefighting vehicles without having to be resupplied.
The first RIV production model will undergo an exhaustive battery of operational, mechanical and safety tests along with concurrent inspections conducted through a third-party tester.
Production of the vehicle will begin by late September 2011 and the Tyndall AFB Fire Emergency Services Flight will receive the first of the P-34s.
